SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP, 



BARON REICHENBACH. 



TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN 



JOHN S. HITTELL 



I^to |0tk: 

PUBLISHED BY CALYIN BLANCHARD, 

76 NASSAU STREET. 

1860. 







Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1860, by John 
S. HiTTELL, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the 
United States for the Northern District of California. 



L. HAUSER, Printer, 8 North William Street, New York. 



CONTENTS. 



TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION xm— xxyii 

AUTHOR'S PREFACE 1—3 

The aim of his investigations 1 — 3 

The Author's opportunity to study somnambulism 3 — 4 



PART I. 
SOMNAMBULISM OF PHYSIOLOGICAL ORIGIN. 



CHAPTER I. 

GENERAL DEVELOPMENT OF SOMNAMBULISM. 

§ 1. The beginnings 5 

I 2. Speaking in dreams the first sign of somnambulism 6 

I 3. Sitting up in bed, the second sign 6 — 7 

I 4. The somnambulist gets out of bed and works 7 

I 5. Somnambulism proper 8 

I 6. Familiarity in somnambulism 8 — 9 

I 7. Somnambulic prophecy 9 — 11 

I 8. A moonlight walk in a night-gown 11 — 12 

I 9. Somnambulism possible in robust health 12 

1 10. Premonitory symptoms 12 — 13 

I 11. Transition to somnambulism 13 — 14 

1 12. Difference between sleep and somnambulism 14 — 15 

I 13. Awakening from somnambulism 15 — 17 



IV CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER II. 

EXTERNAL CAUSES OP SOMNAMBULISM. 

^ 14. Sensitiveness necessary 18 — 20 ' 

§ 15. Coolness favorable 20 

§ 16. Somnambulism caused by negative od 21 — 22 

§ 17. By electricity 22—23 

^ 18. By organic substances 23 

§ 19. By plants 23—24 

g 20. By human od 24—26 

§ 21. Fingers under toes .27 

g 22. By blowing 28 

§ 23. By the glance 28—29 

§ 24. By passes 29—30 

§ 25. By sunshine, &c 30—31 

^ 26. Summary 31—33 

CHAPTER III. 

EXTERNAL INFLUENCES WHICH DISTURB SOMNAMBULIC 

SLEEP. 

§ 27. How to prevent somnambulism 34 — 35 

g 28. How to awaken somnambulists 35 — 36 

§ 29. The shock from a person departing .36 — 37 

§ 30. Somnambulism an od-negative state of the nerves 37 

CHAPTER lY. 



CRAMP. 



I 31. What is the od-positive condition ? 38 

I 32. Cramp common to sensitives 38—39 

I 33. Cramp caused by magnets . 39 — 42 

I 34. By sitting with back to the west 42 



CONTENTS. V 

§ 35. By crystals 42 

g 36. By metals 43—44 

^ 37. By crowds 44—45 

§ 38. By light 45 

g 39. By upward passes 45 — 48 

^ 40. By the peculiar odic influence of individuals 48 — 50 

§ 41. By mental excitement 50 — 52 

§ 42. By obstructions to the flow of od 52—53 

g 43. By like odic pairings 53 — 54 

§ 44. By all od-positive soretic influences 54 — 55 

§ 45. Cramps cured by nemetic od-negative influences. . . 55 — 57 
§ 46. Somnambulism and cramp are opposite odic condi- 
tions of the nervous system 57 — 58 



CHAPTER Y. 

SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP IN CONJUNCTION. 

§ 47. The two occurring together in the human body 59 — 61 

^ 48. Both caused by touch 61—62 

§ 49. By passes 62—64 

§ 50. By magnets 65 

^ 51. By green light 66—67 

CHAPTER YI. 

THE MUTUAL RELATIONS OF SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

I 52. Their influence on each other 68 — 70 

^ 53. Cramps caused by slight soretic influences 79 — 7l 

§ 54. By surcharge of od 71 — 72 

§ 55. By part-passes 72 — 74 

§ 56. By passes over the recurrent nerves 74 — 75 

^ 57. By slow passes 75 

§ 58. Soundness of somnambulic sleep 75 — 77 

^ 59. Somnambulism under active odic influences 77 — 78 

2 GO. Change from waking to somnambulism 78 



71 CONTENTS. 

^ 61. Influence of position in sleep 78 — 79 

§ 62. Moonshine 79—82 

^ 63. Duration of somnambulic sleep 83 

§ 64. Somnambulism for women and cramp for men . . . .83 — 84 

§ 65. Periodicity 84^85 

^ 66. Temperature of the body 85—86 

^ 67. Swellings 86—88 

CHAPTER YII. 

THE CONDITION OF THE SENSES. 

^ 68. Touch 89—90 

§ 69. Smell 90 

I 70. Hearing 90—91 

^ 71. Hearing at the pit of the stomach 91 — 93 

g 72. Hearing in the hand 92 — 94 

g 73. Odic hearing at the stomach 94 — 96 

^ 74. Taste 90—97 

g 75. Sight 97 

^ 76. Seeing with the eyes shut 98 

^ 77. Explanation of seeing without eyes 98 — 99 

g 78. High-sensitives have a sense for od 99 — 101 

§ 79. Vision clearest in darkness 101 — 102 

§ 80. Miss Atzmannsdorfer's statement J 02 — 103 

^ 81. Miss Krueger's statement 103 — 104 

§ 82. Scientific explanation of ordinary vision 104 

§ 83. Clairvoyance brought under natural laws 104 — 105 

§ 84. Seeing into the human body 105—107 

§ 85. Dangerous revelations by clairvoyance 107 — 108 

§ 86. Summary about clairvoyance 108 — 110 

CHAPTER Vni. 

THE MUSCLES IN CRAMP. 

§ 87. Cramp an unvoluntary contraction Ill — 112 

I 88. Severity of strain 112—113 



CONTENTS. VII 

I 89. Prevention of cramps 113 — 116 

j 90. Summary 116—117 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE NERVES IN SOMNAMBULISM. 

I 91. No two cases of somnambulism alike 118 

g 92. Cases of catalepsy 119 

§ 93. Influence of the two nervous systems 119 — 121 

I 94. Cold water good for cramps 121 

^ 95. Weak acids also beneficial 121 — 122 

^ 96. Cramps in extremities painless 122 

^ 97. But painful in the trunk 122—123 

§ 98. Nerves of sensation and motion 123 — 124 

g 99. The odic thrill 124—126 

g 100. The thrill of cramp 126—127 

§ 101. The odic waves of somnambulism and cramp com- 
pared 128—130 



PART II. 

SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP OF PHYSIOLOGICAL 
ORIGIN. 



CHAPTER X. 

INTRODUCTION. 

] 102. Explanatory remarks 131 — 132 

1 103. Somnambulism and cramp caused by mental ex- 
citement 132—134 



VIII CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XI. 

THE INFLUENCE OF SENSUOUS IMPRESSIONS. 

§ 104. Sensitive aversion to monotony 135 — 136 

§ 105. Waving grain-fields 136 

§ 106. Eevolving wagon wheels 137 

§ 107. Waterfalls 137—138 

§ 108. Hopping of a caged bird 138 

^ 109. Swing of a pendulum 138—140 

^ 110. Change of work 140—143 

§ 111. Standing and kneeling 143—145 

^ 112. Music 145 

§ 113. Summary 145—147 

CHAPTER Xn. 

mPLUENCES OF MENTAL ACTIVITY. 
§ 114. Mental exertion 148—150 

CHAPTER Xm. 

INFLUENCES OF THE FEELINGS, AFFECTIONS AND DESIRES. 

§ 115. Love and maternal love 151 — 152 

^ 116. Sensitive women usually virtuous 152 

§ 117. Grief 152-154 

^ 118. Mental depressions altering the odic emanations . 154 — 157 
§ 119. Moral suffering causes an od-positive disturbance 

of the odic equilibrium 157 

§ 120. Vexation and anger . 158 — IGO 

§ 121. Violent excitement weakening odic perception . . 160—162 
g 122. Venting anger a relief for odic illness 162—163 



CONTEXTS. IX 

1 123. Cramps caused by fright 163 — 164 

i 124. By outcries 165—166 

§ 125. Odic perception weakened by fright 166 — 167 

1 126. Cramp caused by jealousy 167 

I 127. By laughing .167—168 

1 128. By joy 168—169 

1 129. By surprise 169—170 

1 130. By mental excitement 170 

1 131. By emotions of memory 170 — 171 

1 132. By emotions in dreams 171 — 172 

1 133. Summary 172—173 



CHAPTER XI. 

MENTAL EXALTATION IN SOMNAMBULISM. 

^ 134. Odic perception acute as sensitiveness is high. . . 174 — 17.5 

^ 135. Somnambulic prophecy 175—176 

^ 136. False somnambulic prediction 177 — 178 

§ 137- Od generated by muscular force 178 — 180 

§ 138. Experiment with a mirror 180 — 182 

^ 139. Dr. Blass' control over Miss Beyer 182 — 183 

^ 140. Other experiments with Miss Beyer 183 — 185 

§ 141. The author gets control of Miss Beyer 185 — 187 

^ 142. The somnambulist does not confound her conscien- 
tiousness with that of the operator 187 — 188 

^ 143. The established facts of clairvoyance 188 — 191 

§ 144. Some ^general remarks on clairvoyance 191 — 192 

§ 145. A clairvoyant prophecy by Miss Reichel 192—193 

§ 146. Predictions by other somnambulists 193 — 195 

^ 147. Limits of objective clairvoyance 195 — 197 

§ 148. Miss Weigand's celestial revelations 197 — 199 

§ 149- Clairvoyant reading the thoughts of others 199 — 201 

I 150. Miss Reichel frightened by an imaginary dog . . .201 — 202 

^ 151- Clairvoyants not hearing when spoken to 202 — 203 

^ 152. Clairvoyance not necessarily belonging to somnam- 
bulism 203—204 



X CONTENTS. 

? 153. Acuteness of odic perception and somnambulism 

opposite states 204 — 205 

§ 154. A blow at the materialists 206 — 209 



CHAPTER XY. 

SOME PECULIAR MENTAL CONDITIONS OF SOMNAMBULISTS. 

§ 155. Drowsiness 210—211 

§ 156. The somnambulic consciousness 211 — 213 

§ 157. The Author's first visit to Miss Girtler 213—215 

i 158. Though tfulness of Mrs. Lederer 215—216 

^ 159. Truthfulness of Miss Zinkel 216—217 

^ 160. Attention in somnambulism 217 — 218 

^ 161. Awaking from somnambulism 218 — 219 

^162. Miss Atzraannsdorfer and her linen 220 — 222 

§ 163. The clear consciousness of somnambulism 222 — 223 

^ 164. Somnambulism differs from common sleep only m 

profoundness 223—224 

2 165. Thouing •. 224—225 



CHAPTER XYI. 

STATE OF THE MEMORY IN SOMNAMBULISM. 

1 166. Recollection of occurrences during sleepwaking. .226 — 228 

1 167. Different states of Miss Girtler's memory 228 

1 168. Memory better in somnambulism than in normal 
consciousness 228 — 229 

} 169. The ideas of one somnambulic fit followed up in 

the next 229—230 

1 170. Main facts about somnambulic memory 231 

1 171. Uprightness and vanity 232—233 



CONTENTS. XI 

CHAPTER XYH. 

THE NATUKE OF SOMNAMBULISM. 

§ 172. Co-existent negative and positive od 234 — 235 

§ 173. Soretic influences treasured up in the nemetic state 235 — 236 

^ 174. Why sleepwalkers clamber out on roofs 236 — 237 

§ 175. "Weak soretic irritations causing activity 237 — 239 

g 176. Conclusion 239 

TRANSLATOK'S APPENDIX 241—253 



TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION. 



The following treatise, first published in the San 
Francisco Home Journal, and here given as a distinct 
book, was written by the Author, as portion of a very 
long work, of 1600 closely printed octavo pages, en- 
titled : Der sensitive Menscli und sein Verhalten zum 
Ode (The sensitive Man and his relation to Od). This 
work is so large that I will not undertake to translate 
the whole of it, unless I receive some encouragement 
during the course of my labors, and for the purpose of 
inviting such encouragment and showing my ability 
to perform the labor, I now submit to the public a 
version of the chapters in "Somnambulism and Cramp," 
commencing in the German edition (Stuttgard and 
Tubingen 1855) at page 546 of the second Volume and 
ending at page 702 ; being about one tenth of the trea- 
tise on The sensitive 3Ian. . No part of this work has 
been published in English by any one save myself. 

For the clear understanding of Reichenbach's re- 
marks on Somnambulism and Cramp the reader should 
be familiar with his Odic-3Iagnetic Letters, which have 
heretofore been translated by me and published in 
English ; but for fear that those Letters may not be 
within the reader's reach at the time when he may 
wish to take up this book, I submit a brief abstract 
of the main principles set forth in them. 



xrv translatoe's introduction. 

Od is a force in nature hitherto unknown. It is 
akin to the great natural forces of light, heat, electri- 
city, magnetism, chemical affinity, etc. These were 
formerly called "imponderable substances ;" but that 
name is now abandoned for the better and more cor- 
rect one of "natural forces." Od pervades the whole 
universe, and radiates out from every particle of mat- 
ter, but it is equally distributed. Wherever there is 
magnetism, heat, electricity, friction, motion, chemical 
action, or putrefaction, od is actively developed, or 
concentrated, and it may be perveived under favorable 
circumstances. It is a peculiarity of od, that not every- 
body can perceive it. Acute odic perception is com- 
paratively rare ; its possession is called sensitiveness, 
or odic sensitiveness, and its possessors are styled sen- 
sitives. The marks of sensitiveness are numerous, but 
the main ones are natural somnambulism, and readi- 
ness to fall asleep under mesmeric influence. These 
are two infallible signs of high sensitiveness. Inability 
to sleep on the left side, dislike of yellow colors, fond- 
ness for blue, dislike of fatty diet, preference for 
slightly sour victuals, and discomfort in crowds, are 
other indications. 

When od is actively developed, as by magnetism, it 
radiates out from the generator ; and a high sensitive 
can see the rays in the dark, but not in the light. The 
odic rays seen in the dark resemble a light smoke 
or a misty flame. Thus, if a high sensitive be confined 
in a perfectly dark room till his eyes have had time 
to accustom themselves to the darkness, and a horse- 
shoe magnet be then held, with its points upwards, 
before him, he will see a misty flame rising from each 
pole. He will see similar misty flames from the ends 



translator's I]S'TR0DUCTI0N. XV 

of quartz crystals, from the ends of wires of wMcli the 
other ends are rubbed, filed, heated, exposed to sun- 
light, connected with galvanic batteries, etc. The odic 
radiation may by felt as well as seen. If the sensitive 
put his hand near to the points of the magnet, crystal 
or wire, he will feel a sensation, as of a little breath, 
blowing against his hand ; and he will feel the same 
kind of a little breath from a human hand ; for the 
human body, in which chemical action is constantly 
active, is a powerful generator of od. The odic sensa- 
tions may be perceived in other manners, by the other 
nerves, but we have not space here to explain these 
points fully. 

Od, like magnetism, electricity and light, has two 
poles. The high sensitive looking carefully at the 
misty flames arising from the magnet, sees that the 
rays from the north pole are blueish, and from the 
south pole, yellowish. The point of a quartz crystal , 
gives out a blue light, the base gives out reddish or 
yellowish rays. This distinction of colors is owing to 
the different odic poles ; the point of the crystal and 
the north pole of the magnet are od-negative ; the 
south pole of the magnet and the base of the crystal 
od-positive. The human body has its odic poles also ; 
the right side is negative, the left, positive. Like pair- 
ings, as the presentation of an od-positive pole of a 
strong od-generator to the positive left side of a high 
sensitive, produces unpleasant sensations, while an od- 
negative pole will cause an agreeable feeling. Thus 
the point of a quartz crystal, and the north pole of a 
magnet, and the right human hand, -are all od-nega- 
tive, and all cause a pleasant, coolish sensation when 
presented to the positive left hand of a sensitive, while 



XVI translator's introduction. 

if they are presented to the negative right hand, they 
will cause a lukewarm disagreeable feeling. Every- 
thing that gives out a blueish odic light, is od-nega- 
tive and cool to the left side of the sensitive, and luke- 
warm to the right side ; while everything giving out 
a reddish light is cool to the right and unpleasant to 
the left. 

Light has its own polarity of color ; blue at one end 
of the spectrum, red at the other ; and the od gener- 
ated by light has its poles also ; the blue rays are od- 
negative, the red rays od-positive. When the positive 
and negative, red and blue odic rays meet as seen in 
the dark, they do not annihilate, or neutralize each 
other, but they unite and form a purplish flame. 

There is an odic polarity in the chemical elements 
taken as a whole ; oxygen being the most strongly od- 
negative, and potassium the strongest od-positive. 
The stronger the afi&nity for oxygen, the stronger the 
odic positiveness. In this way the elements have been 
ranged in what is called the od-chemical order, which 
corresponds precisely with the electro-chemical order 
fixed after by long study, by Berzelius and other che- 
mists. 

Wherever there is putrefaction, there is odic radia- 
tion ;' and Reichenbach supposes the vulgar belief that 
ghosts are seen in graveyards, to have arisen from the 
fact that high sensitives passing graveyards in very 
dark nights, saw the odic lights over new graves, 
where the bodies were putrefying. He also supposes 
that the alleged wonder of water-finding is caused by 
certain odic sensations felt by high sensitives when 
walking over subterranean currents of water; the 



TRANSLATOR S INTRODUCTION. XVII 

flow oj? that liquid, like all other motion, serving to 
develop od. 

He is not a sensitive himself, and he has not seen 
the odic lights or felt the odic sensations, of which he 
writes so much ; but he experimented for years with 
more than a hundred sensitives, testing and counter- 
testing their statements until he satisfied himself that 
there was no possibility of error about the facts as 
here stated. 

It has been established by numerous mesmeric ex- 
periments that there is a force — sometimes called a 
"fluid" — unnamed until Reichenbach commenced his 
researches — a force which is generated in the human 
system, and by which one man can throw another in- 
to various mesmeric conditions, such as insensibility, 
somnambulism and cramp. It has been further estab- 
lished that there is some kind of a polarity on the 
two sides of the human frame, a polarity which was 
unexplained by our works on Chemistry and Physio- 
logy. These two principles — of the mesmeric force, as 
it was called before Reichenbach named it od, and 
the polarity of that force — though not very clearly 
set forth in the books on mesmerism, are yet clearly 
deducible from facts therein stated, and once admitted 
they almost compel us to receive Reichenbach's whole 
system, for he has connected all its parts so closely 
and strongly that the whole must stand or fall toge- 
ther. 

I have thus very briefly stated the main points of 
the theory set forth in the Odic-Magnetic Letters ; and 
I now proceed to present here a similar abstract of 
the Treatise on Somnamhulism and Cramp, so that 



XVIII translator's introduction. 

the reader, before commenciiig to read the body of the 
book, may have a general idea of its contents. 

And first in regard to the phenomena of Somnam- 
bulism : — 

Somnambulism is a peculiar abnormal mental fit, or 
temporary condition, wherein man loses his normal 
consciousness and gets another abnormal one, and be- 
comes a different person, with a new memory, powers 
of perception, and modes of thought and action. Som- 
nambulism is of two kinds, natural or spontaneous, and 
artificial or mesmeric. The former occurs unexpected- 
ly and often away without having been discovered, 
the normal memory being ignorant of the occurrence 
of the sleep-waking fit, as well as the acts done in it. 
Somnambulism rarely occurs in a solitary fit, but hav- 
ing once made its appearance in a person, recurs again 
and again, and if the fits be short, they often recur at 
regular intervals, as a particular hour every day. The 
liability to somnambulism seems to be a physical af- 
fection ; it often comes on about the age of puberty, 
or during sickness, and disappears when the frame 
gets its full growth and the nerves are strengthened 
by exercise and health. It has been observed that the 
tendency to sleepwalking seems to be hereditary in 
certain families ; if one child in a house be a somnam- 
bulist, the others will be liable to the same affection. 
The fits of spontaneous somnambulism may occur at 
any time during sleep, or during normal waking, and 
if in the latter condition during labor, or conversa- 
tion, while standing, sitting or walking. A person 
once subject to it is never secure from its attacks. The 
transition from normal walking to somnambulism and 
from the latter to the former state are often almost 



TRANSLATOR S INTRODUCTION. SIX 

instantaneous, and occur without any perceptible ex- 
ternal causes. Mesmeric somnambulism is very much 
like the spontaneous, but is brought on intentionally 
by mesmeric treatment. 

In somnambulism the senses are often dormant. The 
eyes are closed, and when the lids are forced open the 
iris is found to be turned upwards in a singular posi- 
tion. The retina seems to be insensible, for the pupil 
does not contract and enlarge in proportion to the 
strength of the light. The ear is ordinarily deaf. 
Loud, sudden and unexpected noises, such as the dis- 
charge of pistols at the ear do not cause the somnam- 
bulist to start. The nose does not seem to perceive 
the strongest pungent odors, such as that of ammonia. 
The nerves of touch convey no sense of pain. Pinch- 
ing, pricking and cutting do not disturb or waken the 
somnambulist. 

Although the nerves of sense appear to have lost 
their functions during somnambulism, yet the somnam- 
bulist is not without means of perception. He sees 
with his eyes closed, in darkness as well as in day- 
light. Sometimes he possesses a clairvoyant power, 
and sees and hears events occurring far from him in 
places hidden from him by numerous walls or build- 
ings. He sees through opaque substances ; can read 
sealed letters, and look into his own body and the bo- 
dies of others ; can read their thoughts ; and can even 
foresee the fortune, particularly in regard to his own 
health. 

The somnambulist remembers all the impressions 
made upon his mind while in somnambulism, and also 
those made during normal consciousness, and even those 
made in the latter state, })ut forgotten and entirely 



XX TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION. 

beyond the reacli of tlie waking memory. Thus cases 
have occurred of somnambulists in mature age speak- 
ing fluently in tongues which they had known in child- 
hood, but afterwards, for want of practice, completely 
forgotten for a score of years. The somnambulist, 
when awake, does not remember the impressions made 
on his mind in sleepwaking, and therefore his memory 
in the abnormal, is much more comprehensive than in 
the normal state. 

The condition of the mind in somnambulism varies 
greatly in different cases. Some sleepwakers talk in 
an unconnected manner, as if insane or monomaniac -, 
but most act in a thoughtful manner, and speak more 
intelligently than when awake. They walk, read, 
work, talk, joke and laugh, like other persons. If 
alone, they talk to themselves ; if in company, they 
talk to others. Somnambulists are fond of getting 
out into the moonlight, and for that purpose will 
clamber out at night upon roofs, going in dangerous 
places, where they would never venture awake, and 
where the bravest men, accustomed to climb about on 
buildings, would dislike to follow. If opposition be 
made to the somnambulist going out upon the roof, the 
latter will sometimes insist, declare that there is no 
danger and go into a paroxysm of rage if prevented, 
or show supernatural strength in breaking down bar- 
riers, or breaking away from persons holding him. 
Some somnambulists do not seem to think much of 
dress, particularly when they have not been in that 
state often, and have not spent much time while som- 
nambulic in company ; thus most sleepwalkers go out 
in their night gowns. 

Where somnambulism is caused by mesmeric treat- 



translator's introduction. XXI 

ment, the somnambulist is in communication with the 
mesmerizer, and hears him and sees him, while appa- 
rently not hearing or seeing any other person, no mat- 
ter how many there may be in the room. He is, also, 
to a great extent, under the influence of the mesmeri- 
zer, and will act and form opinions in accordance with 
the directions of the latter in a strange manner. When 
the mesmerizer suggests an idea, the somnambulist's 
mind seems to be entirely occupied by it. Sometimes 
it happens that the spontaneous somnambulist gets into 
a mental communication with another person, and 
stands to him in the same relation as the mesmeric 
somnambulist to the mesmerizer. If the sleepwaker is 
not in communication with anybody, then accident 
seems to suggest certain ideas, which occupy his mind 
to a seeming extension of other impressions. It often 
happens that the ideas dominant in one fit are taken 
up again in the next one, and so on. Thus, a lady 
may commence knitting a purse while somnambulic, 
and work at it during a number of successive fits, put- 
ting it away carefully before awaking, always com- 
mencing methodically where the work was previously 
abandoned, and never knowing anything of it when 
awake. 

The mind in somnambulism is ordinarily joyous and 
jocose in mood, the cares of everyday life being for- 
gotten. The sleepwaker in society neglects many of 
the little customary conventional ceremonies, and is 
familiar, but keeps within the bounds of decency and 
propriety. 

The somnambulist eats, drinks, and performs the 
ordinary duties of life very much as in normal con- 
sciousness. The mind is often as clear and quick iu 



XXir TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION. 

somnambulism as in waking hours ; and of many som- 
nambulists, it is said that they show more wit asleep 
than awake. 

Such are the main features of somnambulism, as re- 
ported by a great number of writers. The phenomena 
are very different in different persons, scarcely any 
two cases being alike. The clairvoyant power and su- 
pernormal perception are looked upon as mere fictions 
by many physiologists, especially those who have nev- 
er had an opportunity to observe this rare and won- 
derful abnormal condition. 

Now for Reichenbach's explanations of the somnam- 
bulic phenomena. 

In perfect health the human body is pervaded by 
od in a state of equilibrium. The person in whom that 
equilibrium is steady and not easily disturbed, is a 
non-sensitive ; he whose odic equilibrium is unsteady 
is a sensitive. Only sensitives are liable to somnam- 
bulism, which is a disturbed odic state, with negative 
od predominant. Somnambulism is caused only by od- 
negative influences, such as downward passes in the 
mesmeric style, by the odic radiation from the north 
pole of a magnet or the point of a quartz crystal ; and 
it is cured or prevented by od-positive influence, 
such as upward passes, the south point of the magnet, 
the base of a crystal, etc. 

As somnambulism is the od-negative state of the 
nervous system, so cramp is the od-positive state ; the 
influences which cause the one will cure the other. 
Both states begin and end with odic nervous thrills, 
which, in the beginning of somnambulism and end of 
cramp, fall from the head to the feet, and at the end 
of somnambulic fits and beginning of cramps rise from 



translator's introduction. XXIII 

the feet to tlie head. The two opposite odic conditions 
often occur together : negative and positive od do not 
neutralize each other when they meet in the human 
body. High sensitive, often somnambulic, invariably 
suffer much with cramp. 

Reichenbach, after giving a number of instances in 
which he has witnessed clairvoyances, gives a theory 
to explain that singular power. He says the whole 
nervous system of a high sensitive, perceives the odic 
rays, as the eye does the light rays ; and therefore, 
the clairvoyant can see, by the odic perception, almost 
as well without the use of the eyes as with them. As 
the odic rays have no insulator but pass through all 
substances, so everything is "diodanous," or permeable 
to the odic rays, and consequently translucent to the 
nerves of acute odic perception. Thus the high sen- 
sitive, under favorable condition, can see into and 
through the human body, and see the internal organs, 
and perceive whether they are sound or diseased. 

Negative od predominates in sunlight, and positive 
od in moonlight, which latter is therefore the more 
agreeable to the somnambulist in the od negative 
state. The positive odic influence of the moonlight is 
not strong enough to wake the sleeper, but only to 
disturb and make him restless, and the result is that 
he gets up and goes out into the positive moonlight, 
and not content with that, he gets up as high as pos- 
sible for the purpose of seeing the moonlight reflected 
from other objects in the vicinity. These are the 
causes why somnambulists are more uneasy when the 
moon is full than at any other time, and why they al- 
ways get up on house-tops, &c. 

I am not prepared to assert that all Reichenbach^s 



XXIV translator's introduction. 

alleged discoveries are really true. They have not 
been subjected to all the tests. We know only that 
they come from a most learned and able man, whose 
previous eminence as a chemist and geologist and 
technicist, predisposes us in his favor, whose books on 
this subject of od, show us that he used all those tests, 
and made all those experiments which scientific scep- 
ticism could demand, and made them with the great- 
est care and recorded them with unexampled minute- 
ness. We know that he is an aged man, already be- 
yond three score and ten, with no imaginable motive 
to mislead. We know; that his theory has none of the 
marks of having been adopted in folly or delusion ; he 
shows no preternatural wonders, comes with no mes- 
sage from the other world, endeavors to establish no 
new faith, asks no credulity, hopes for nothing but to 
extend the domain of science — a domain wherein the 
imposter and the dupe have nothing to gain and every- 
thing to lose. 

Many alleged important scientific discoveries have 
proved false after thorough investigation. Some have 
been subjects of dispute for many years, between mas- 
ters of the branches under which they came, as was 
the case with mesmerism and Laplace's theory of the 
formation of the universe — theories which have played 
a very important part in physiology and astronomy. 
So it may be with the odic theory. But it certainly 
is too strong on the very face of Eeichenbach's books, 
it is supported and braced by too many universally 
known facts, it is connected too ingeniously (to say 
the least) with many well established principles of 
physics, it ofi'ers plausible explanations of too many 
hitherto inexplicible mysteries, it is set forth in works 



' TRAXSLATOR's I2s'TR0DUCTI0N. XXV 

of too much learning, ability and elegance to allow us 
to suppose that it should easily be overthrown. The 
more we consider it, the more reasonable does the 
theory appear. 

Mesmerism, the power of certain men to throw cer- 
tain other men into states of insensibility, somnambu- 
lism and cramp, by passes, etc., is now recognized 
as true by our highest physiological authority; and it 
follows as a matter of course that the passes must ex- 
ert an influence by means of a force not explained, un- 
derstood, or even named before it was called "od'' by 
Reichenbach. I think it not only proved that there is 
such a force, different from all the other known forces 
of nature, but that it also has a polarity. At least, it 
is a well known fact to experienced mesmerists, that 
there is a polarity in the human frame, the right and 
left sides being in an unmistakeable polar opposition. 
When we once admit the two principles of the exist- 
ence of the odic force in the human system, and the 
polarity of the force and of the human body, they al- 
most compel us to receive Reichenbach's whole sys- 
tem, for he has connected all its parts so closely and 
strongly that the whole must stand or fall together. 

Some new words used in the following translation 
may deserve explanation here. 

Sensitiveness^ Sensitive and Non-Sensitive are suffi- 
ciently explained by what has gone before. High-sen- 
sitive^ demi-sensitive and lov'-sensitive are persons in 
whom odic sensitiveness is high, moderate or weak. 
Od, od-negative, and od-positive have been explained. 
tfy means to charge with od. Soretic as an adjec- 
tive applied to positive odic influences, exerted by up 
ward passes &c. Nemelic applies to negative odic in- 



XXVI teanslator's introduction. 

fluences. Soretically and nemetically are their respec- 
tive adverbs. Pairing is the presentation of two odic 
poles to each other. Like pairing is the presentation of 
like poles; unlike pairing the presentation of opposite 
^ poles. A double pass is a pass made with both hands; 
a part pass is a pass which is not made over the whole 
length of the body ; a full-length pass is niade over the 
whole length ; afar pass is a pass made at a distance. 
Diodanous means permeable to od ; diodaneity means 
permeability to od. Psychology, with its adjective and 
adverb, is used here in its wide modern sense of the 
science of mind. 

J. S. H. 

San Francisco, September 19th 1859. 



AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 



THE AIM OF HIS INVESTIGATIONS. 

Different as the present investigations may be 
from all previous essays on the same subject, they yet 
have a similar origin, which, in my case, was the op- 
portunity offered by accident of observing the highly 
sensitive Miss Nowotny suffering with catalepsy on the 
bed of sickness. The difference, in the method of in- 
vestigation and the conclusions arrived at, may be 
accounted for by the fact that my predecessors were, 
almost without exception, physicians or medical dilet- 
tanti, while I am an investigator of nature. As might 
be expected from those upon their stand-point, their 
conceptions and studies of somnambulism were doc- 
torish, aiming only at cures ; while, on the other hand, 
I took the philosophic trail, and adopted as my pur- 
pose the study of the forces of universal nature here 

active. I have therefore not inquired what practical 

1 



2 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

benefit, of value for tlie . treatment of future patients, 
might be derived from the singular pathological phe- 
nomena of Miss Nowotny, but I have labored to dis- 
cover whether it might not be possible to reach the 
physical and physiological causes, whence proceeded a 
multitude of astonishing effects, such as I saw deve- 
loped in cataleptic cases. The physicians, with an 
immediate utilitarian purpose in view, went forward 
with their study of somnambulism ; but I turned and 
went backwards, neglecting all minor matters in the 
search for the beginning of these efforts of nature. 
Thus it was tha.t while those worried themselves with 
somnambulism, animal magnetism, fascination, and 
clairvoyance, and finally sought, by means of extacies 
and magnetic communication with the supernatural to 
throw light upon the dark labyrinth, in which they 
were ever becoming more hopelessly lost, I, taking the 
contrary course, went from magnetism to crystaliza- 
tion, thence to chemical analysis, and so on to sound, 
warmth, light and electricity, and finally to the source 
of all these enigmatic phenomena in the odic group. 
For the purpose of laying bare the foundations of the 
natural forces here ruling, I followed only the traces 
of their dynamics, and as may be seen in my previous 
writings, excluded from my investigations, the various 
entangled phenomena of sleep-waking. In now ap- 
proaching somnambulism, under these circumstances, 
some justification of my c'onduct is necessary ; and 
this justification consists in the fact that I do not treat 
of somnambulism in its whole extent, and even give 
no consideration whatever to many of its dark sides 
which are converted by some late writers into its main 
features ; but I confine myself to those points of physio- 



AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 3 

logy and psychology — considering the latter only as a 
natural and experimental science — which are necessary 
to the completeness and clearness of my physical labors ; 
and which, therefore, I would not dare to omit. Noth- 
ing that I write here has been obtained from others ; 
I shall restrict myself carefully to the results of my 
own investigations. 

THE author's opportunity TO STUDY SOMNAMBULISM. 

On this occasion, those persons will be set at rest 
who erroneously supposed and asserted that I knew 
no somnambulists, and that I avoided mentioning 
somnambulic phenomena for want of information. 
Among my sensitive subjects there are some thirty and 
odd somnambulists with whom I have had intercourse 
for years. One of these remained in my house for 
two weeks, others for three or four weeks, Miss Reichel 
three months, and Miss Atzmannsdorfer for six months ; 
and therefore I may claim to have an intimate acquaint- 
ance with the facts of sleep-waking, such as few phy- 
sicians have had. Consequently, the assertion that I 
have no experience in the field of somnambulism is 
less applicable to me than to any one else, and can 
proceed only from physicians, in so far as I am not of 
their profession. But I must beg the reader to keep 
in mind that in this essay, the subject is not the curing 
of disease, but the investigation of nature. All true 
hygiene must have natural science as its foundation. 
And thus my investigations will render more and 
greater services to medicine than all the receipts for 
the most effective passes and the artfuUest manipula- 
tions with palms and fingers. 



4 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

I shall treat of somnambulism under its two phases, 
— ^physiological and psychological. That these two 
phases flow together in the somnambulic phenomena 
is easily to be understood ; but the dividing line be- 
tween them may nevertheless be accurately and se- 
curely traced. 



PART L 

SOMNAMBULISM OF PHYSIOLOGICAL ORIGIN. 

CHAPTER I. 

GENERAL DEVELOPMENT OP SOMNAMBULISM. 

§ 1. The be^nnings. — When sensitiveness belongs 
in a high degree to the constitution of a man from his 
birth, or when it has been greatly increased by disease 
it is no longer content with influencing his waking 
life in a thousand ways, but lays hold also of his 
sleep, the normal and healthy course of which it 
changes to an abnormal and disturbed condition. 

The first act, that of falling into the somnambulic 
sleep — an act which I have witnessed hundreds of 
times — does not differ perceptibly from the entrance 
into the ordinary sleep. In Miss Atzmannsdorfer I 
had frequent opportunities of observing sleepiness, 
yawning, evident resistance and struggle, in which her 
will was finally conquered, and then somnambulic sleep 
immediately followed. Ordinarily, however. Miss 
Reichel and Messrs. Sturmann, Winter and others, fell 
quickly from waking into somnambulism. I once ad- 
vised Miss Zinkel not to wear a night-cap, which I 
thought unwholesome, and she accordingly commenced 
to take her cap off but stopped — she had gone into 
somnambulism. 



6 SOMNAMBULISM AXD CRAMP. 

§ 2. Speaking in dreams the first sign of somnam- 
bulism. — The first sign of abnormal action often dis- 
coverable in slightly sensitive persons, who are not 
aware of any unhealthy action in their constitutions ; 
is speaking in dreams. A perfectly non-sensitive man 
seldom or never speaks in dream. No one has ever 
heard me speak a word in dream, and I am a perfectly 
non-sensitive, but possessed, at the same time, of strong 
nervous sensibility. On the other hand, nearly every 
one of my sensitive subjects has informed me that he 
talks in his dreams j and the few, who could not tell 
me this, had, as it happened, no information in regard 
to themselves on this point. They must, however, 
just as certainly have spoken in dreams as did the 
others. Some of the weakest sensitives may be men- 
tioned as examples of dream-talkers, and among them 
are Dr. Friedrich, Dr. Diesing when a boy. Prof. 
Schabus, Chevalier Sidorowicz, Prof. Shroetter, Prof. 
Eagsky, Prof. Chevalier von Perger, Mr. Mauch, Mr. 
Kotschy, Baron Schindler, Col. Arroquia, Major 
Schwartzmann, Mr. Cevallos, Chevalier Siemianowski 
and Mr. Offenheim. All the high sensitives, without 
exception, are dream-talkers ; such as Misses Geral- 
dini, Hek, Rupp, Schwarz, Bernazke, and Blahusch, 
Mrs. Mueller, Drs. Loew, Machold, and Natterer, 
Messrs. Richard, Schuler, Alois Zinkel, Klein, Leo- 
polder, Schiller, Preinreich, and many others. They 
talk not only to themselves and to imaginary persons, 
but they also conduct conversations with persons ac- 
tually present, to whom they speak and reply with 
readiness. 

§ 3. Sitting up in bed, the second sign.— The next 



GENERAL DEVELOPMEXT OF SOilXAMBULISM. 7 

phenomenon, in the development of somnambulism, 
is, that such persons sit up in their beds, and accom- 
pany their words with gesticulations. With this 
dream-moving, the somnambulic action begins. The 
dream-conceptions gain such a strength and clearness 
that they appear to the dreamer to be real, and govern 
his conduct. Stephen KoUar, Miss Karhan, Mrs. 
Fenzl and Mrs. Preinreich are examples. The eyes of 
the somnambulist on these occasions are closed, but 
they move in such a lively manner that they appear to 
be winking. I have often satisfied myself that there 
was no real winking, but that the lids were kept 
closed. 

§ 4. The somnambulist gets out of bed and works. 

— When the sensitives advance another degree in their 
somnambulism, they get out of bed, walk about and 
do all kinds of work, mechanical and intellectual, 
write letters, compositions and poetry. Many sensi- 
tives do such things when children, particularly boys 
at the age of puberty. Examples of such dream- 
workers are Mr. Cevallos, Dr. Diesing, Sebastian Zin- 
kel, Drs. Friedrich, Max Krueger, Mr. Kotschy, Major 
Schwartzmann, Mr. Hochstetter, Mr. Kratochwila, Ste- 
phan Kollar, Mr. Schiller, Mr. Preinreich, Mr. Enter, 
Mr. Delhez, Baronet Siemianovski, Mr. Weiner, Mr. 
Steiger, Mr. Offenheim, Dr. Machold, Dr. Loew, 
Mr. Leopolder, Baron Schindler, Miss Matilda von 
Unckhrechtsberg, Mrs. von Yarady, Mrs. Bauer, and 
Miss Dorfer. All these are healthy persons, and the 
most of them have not been- given to sleep-walking 
since arriving at their majority. 



» SOMNAMBTJLISM AND CRAMP. 

§ 5. Somnambulism proper. — The next^ degree is 
that of somnambulism proper. There are certain con- 
ditions in the sleep of healthy sensitive persons, which 
should perhaps be reckoned as somnambulic. I wit- 
nessed one case which showed conclusively that mode- 
rate sensitives, considered by themselves and others to 
be very healthy, may fall into somnambulism under 
very peculiar circumstances. Miss Zinkel was one of 
a family of nine children, all of whom grew up to 
be strong men and vigorous women. Health and 
strength, large muscle and fine bone are hereditary in 
the family. Miss Zinkel herself may make every claim 
to good and durable health. And yet, she and her 
brothers and sisters are highly sensitive. This wo- 
man, who had never been in the somnambulic sleep in 
her life before, and had never even heard of it, sat 
down one evening in my presence, in good health, but 
somewhat tired with the labors and cares of the day. 
I took the light away for one or two minutes, into 
another room, and when I returned I was astonished 
to find her asleep. 

§ 6. Familiarity in somnambulism. — She soon began 
to speak in an unsual tone of voice, and when I went 
near her, she began to speak to me, addressing me as, 
" Thou, Thou, Baron, I have something -to say to thee." 
[This address has a meaning which English-speaking 
people cannot comprehend without a special explana- 
tion. " Thou" and " thee" are always used by Ger- 
mans, as well as by Frenchmen and Spaniards, in ad- 
dressing near relatives, intimate friends, while other 
persons are addressed as " You," or its equivalent, 
implying that the parties stand upon a relation of 



GEXERAL DEYELOPMENT OF SOIES^AMBULISM. 9 

formality and ceremony very different from the inti- 
macy implied by the address " Thou." People coming 
from the Continent of Europe to England or the 
United States, find it very queer that children have to 
be treated to the formality of " You," and that the 
nearest intimacy Tvill not enable them to use the 
" Thou," an endearing familiarity which they prized 
so much in their native lands. If a gentleman were 
to say " Thou," to a lady of his ordinary acquaintance, 
in Germany it would be considered an insult ; much 
less would a lady venture to address a strange gentle- 
man in that style. Miss Zinkel, in her normal condi- 
tion, would not have thought of saying "Thon" to 
Baron Reichenbach, and more than ordinary courage 
would have been required to carry the thought into 
execution, after its conception. " Thou" was used in 
England three or four hundred years ago, as it is now 
in Continental Europe, and indeed it has not gone 
entirely out of use yet in some of the provinces. — 
Traxs.] 

§ 7. Somnambulic prophecy. — I saw that this was 
no ordinary sleep, but I was astonished to think that 
she was a somnambulist. She told me then, among 
other things, that she was afraid of the coming night, 
because at twelve o'clock she would have an attack of 
the tooth-ache, which would last an hour. I took note 
of these words, and waked her, after some time, with 
upward passes, but said nothing to her of what had 
occurred ; and one reason for my silence was, that she 
has a great dislike for somnambulism, and is afraid 
that she may fall into that condition, which she would 
cor!?irler a great misfortune; [Tliis statement of Rei- 

1* 



10 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

chenbach that he was silent on account of Miss Zin- 
kel's fear of somnambulism, does not accord very well 
with his assertion, made only a few lines previously, 
that she had never heard of that state. The discre- 
pancy may be explained by supposing the author to 
be guilty of an anachronism. He may have attributed 
motives, which governed him subsequently, to an earlier 
time. — Trans.] The next morning I inquired, with 
much curiosity, how she felt and how she had slept. 
She complained that her sleep had been disturbed. 
" And by what?" I asked. " By toothache," was the 
answer. " And when did it attack you ?" Just at 
12 o'clock." And how long did it last ?" " A long 
hour ; I heard the clock strike one before the pain 
ceased." She had not had toothache in a twelve month 
previous to this. 

I did not tell her of the interest which I took in 
her replies. They furnished me the proof and the first 
example that sensitive persons, in robust health, may 
fall into somnanibulic sleep, and that so deeply that they 
may he able to make prophecies about their physical 
conditions, such as no human knowledge, no other human 
faculty, luould ever he capable of making. 

Such cases happened repeatedly about that time, 
offering different phases. One evening she went into 
the somnambulic sleep while sitting upon the sofa, and 
then said she would have a severe attack of cramp, 
which would commence at three o'clock in the morn- 
ing, and last an hour and a half. Nothing was said 
to her after she awoke of this prediction, in the desire 
not to pain her with unavailing apprehensions. But 
the cramp came at three o'clock, as foretold, and lasted 
till half-past four. 



GENERAL DEVELOPMENT OF SOMNAMBULISM. 11 

Mrs. Heintl, a young woman of a fine figure, offered 
another example. She is always in good health, and 
is in the full-bloom of her beauty. Nevertheless, it 
happens that she gets up in her bed, speaks, even cries 
and bawls, lights a candle, works, writes, opens the 
windows, sits upon the sills, with her legs hanging 
out, and, in short, is completely under the dominion 
of somnambulism, and exposes herself to all its dan- 
gers. 

§ 8. A moonlight walk in a night-gown. — I found 
a third example in Mrs. Cecelia Bauer. She is a 
healthy, robust woman, and like Mrs. Heintl, was never 
ill in her life. While living with her parents, in Nuss- 
dorf, she often arose in the night and did all kinds of 
dangerous acts about the house. One winter's night, 
when there was snow upon the ground, she opened the 
house-door and went out into the street, bare-footed 
and dressed only in a night-gown. It so happened that 
a fire broke out in the village, soon after she went out ; 
the alarm was given ; and the sleeper was awakened 
by the uproar and jostling of the excited multitude. 
She found herself, dressed very scantily, in the midst 
of the crowd, with the bright moon overhead. There 
have been pretended somnambulists, who have slipped 
out of houses at night, but these would-be dreamers 
never go out in their night-gowns, on moon-light nights, 
nor bare-footed in the snow ; nor do they wait, on an 
alarm of fire, till they are surrounded and jostled by 
the crowd. When Mrs. Bauer was seen by her rela- 
tives, or friends, in her somnambulism, she was led back 
to the house ; but it often happened that she went out 
and returned unnoticed, and lay down quietly again in 



12 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

her bed. The next morning she would know nothing 
of her adventures of the previous night, but the marks 
of her movements and actions would show that she had 
been up. 

These are women ; but men have been observed to 
act in the same manner. Mr. Klein, who was always 
healthy, discovered often that he had arisen in his sleep, 
walked about, worked at different things, and then gone 
to bed again. Dr. Friedrich and Messrs. Delhez, Offen- 
heim, and many others, also walked and worked in their 
sleep, when young. 

§ 9. Somnambulism possible in robust health. — These 
somnambulists are all persons in perfect health who 
were never troubled by illness, and had the most robust 
constitutions imaginable. I shall again return to this 
portion of the subject, but shall say nothing more of it 
now than that I consider the scientific principle well- 
established, ihsit perfectly healthy sensitives^ who at least 
consider themselves to he free from all disease^ not only 
walk in their sleep, hid fall into the deepest somnamhulism. 

This principle being fixed, it will be proper to glance 
briefly at the cause of somnambulic sleep, as I have 
observed it in highly sensitive — that is diseased — per- 
sons and in moderate sensitives who had fallen into a 
temporary illnes. Thereafter we shall return to the 
qualities of sleep-waking and from them go back to 
its causes. 

§ 1 . Premonitory symptoms. A great number of 
causes may induce Cramp and Catalepsy in sensitive 
impressible persons. Somnambulism may be induced 
by the same causes, or it may be a consequeuce of Ca- 



GENERAL DEVELOPMENT OF SOMNAMBULISM. 13 

talepsy. This change does not occur gradually, but 
in a rapid, often in an instantaneous transition from 
consciousness to the state of sleep. The premonitory 
symptoms, were usually a general chilliness, sometimes 
even an icy coldness. These symptoms were noted in 
Misses Atzmannsdorfer, Beyer, Nowotny, Sturmann 
and Weigand. The chilliness is followed by a remark- 
able, irresistible disposition to yawn; which was invari- 
ably succeeded in a few minutes by somnambulism in 
Misses Atzmannsdorfer, Beyer and Kynast. A third 
symptom is a burning and watering of the eyes, which 
break out into a flood of tears if the subject endeavors 
to resist the somnambulic attack. These facts were 
noticed frequently in Misses Atzmannsdorfer, Beyer 
and Zinkel. 

§ 11. Transition to somnambulism. — The actual 
transition to the somnambulic sleep occurs instanta- 
neously. Miss Atzmannsdorfer while engaged with me 
in waking and sensible conversation often changed, 
without any perceptible break or stoppage in her lan- 
guage, to talking mere nonsense. I made similar ob- 
servations on Misses Krueger, Beyer and Sturmann ; 
they had fallen into somnambulism. This state had 
come upon them as if it had been induced by a mere 
turn of a screw governing the rudder in the brain. 
The eyes were then closed and the skin without sensa- 
tion, but the sense of hearing was good. Misses Girt- 
ler, Seckendorf, Atzmannsdorfer, Beyer, Reichel, Krue- 
ger, Weigand, Blahusch, Kynast, Sturmann and Dorfer, 
Mrs. Lederer, Krebs, Kienesberger and many others 
always had their eyes closed while in somnambulism. 
I stuck pins into the hands of Misses Sturmann, Girtler, 



14 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

Nowotny, Atzmannsdorfer, Beyer and Kynast, without 
shrinking or sense of pain on their part. These are all 
well known phenomena which I merely mention by the 
way, and do not purpose to examine further. 

The use of "thou" in addressing others is a peculiar 
mark of the somnambulists ; they use it in speaking to 
every one, whatever his rank may be, high or low. 
Often, when it is doubtful whether a sleep is normal or 
abnormal, this is one of the most trustworthy means 
of determining. 

§ 12. Difference between sleep and somnambulism. — 

The chief difference between the somnambulic and 
the normal sleeper, is that the latter has no clear con- 
sciousness, or is entirely unconscious, while the former 
is more or less conscious of his own existence and of 
what is going on about him ; and this consciousness is 
sometimes so lively that it is scarcely to be distinguished 
from that of a waking person. Miss Reichel, while 
somnambulic in my house for weeks at a stretch, did 
not the less perform, as well as others, all the ordinary 
processes of life, and she worked industriously at her 
sewing with closed eyes for day after day. She walked 
safely through the crowded streets of Vienna with 
closed eyes, and made her purchases in the shops. 
Misses Seckendorf and Girtler, with closed eyes, ob- 
served all the rules of conventional propriety ; the 
latter took particular care of her head-dress, and pick- 
ing up an almanac, looked for certain days in it with 
her eyes shut, and when she had found them, pointed 
them out with her finger. I saw her pick up a pin 
from the table-cloth and put it in a proper place. A glass 
of water had been brought and placed in silence on the 



GEXERAL DEYELOPMEXT OF SOMXAMBULISM. 15 

table-cloth before her ; she reached out her hand with 
confidence, laid hold of the glass at once and drank 
its contents. I often conversed with Miss Atzmanns- 
dorfer for hours, when she was somnambulic, about her 
past life, her prospects for the future, and other matters 
then interesting to her. Mrs. Lederer was lively and 
witty when in somnambulism, and laughed and joked 
about herself and others. Many of the girls liked to 
have love made to them, and were particularly pleased 
with flattery. Half Vienna remembers the somnambu- 
list brewer boy, Simmering, who, with closed eyes, 
harnessed up his horses, got into his wagon and drove 
through the city, managing his horses judiciously. In 
short the somnambulists have such clear consciousness, 
and such good humor, are so lively and talkative, par- 
ticularly when they have become experienced in that 
condition, that a strange observer, coming in acciden- 
tally, can not distinguish their condition and conduct 
from that of waking persons, except by the closed eyes 

§ 13. Awakening from somnambulism. — If the som- 
nambulists are left to themselves they remain in that 
condition for half an hour, a day or a night, and then 
awake to their ordinary consciousness. But sometimes 
they sleep-wake on for weeks and months; and indeed, 
one case in Vienna came to my knowledge where the 
somnambulist did not wake for half a year. The 
awakening usually occurs in a short time, and the en- 
trance into every-day lifg appears rather dull. Miss 
Krueger, when awakening, rubbed her eyes slowly, 
looked round staringly, did not at first see clearly, 
and then wondered at the darkness and murkiness of 
the actual, world as compared with the joyous, care- 



16 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

free dream-life from which she had just returned. Mis- 
ses Reichel, Atzmannsdorfer, and others, acted in the 
same manner. Mrs. Lederer, in awakening, rubbed 
her eyes for a long tim«, and stared wondering at 
everything about her until she had finally come to 
herself. When Miss Zinkel was about to awaken, she 
began to rub her eyes, and I observed that this rub- 
bing began at the inner corner of the eye and extend- 
ed out to the temple. As this is a nemetic pass tow- 
ards the facial nerves, so the rubbing was not mere- 
ly accidental, but was a self-awakening by back pas- 
ses. On one occasion she joined the five fingers of 
each hand together in a point, and without touching 
her eyes made a slow pass from the inner corners of 
the eyes to the temples. Indeed she once seized my 
hand, placed the points of my fingers together, and 
then used them to make similar passes over her eyes. 
If I had undertaken to awaken her, with all care and 
forethought, in this manner, I could not have done it 
in a more methodical and regular manner than this, 
at that time, new and inexperienced somnambulist did. 
The awakening which followed was at first unclear, as 
is the case with all somnambulists. She opened her 
eye-lids, but apparently did not see. I made all kinds 
of quick motions towards the eyes, but they were not 
noticed ; there was no shrinking or winking : the pu- 
pil did not move. After the eyes were opened, a full 
minute of somnambulism intervened, before she arrived 
at the clear waking consciousness and sensation which 
succeeded. When I made another violent motion tow- 
ards the eyes, she drew back in fright. The ordinary 
consciousness always began with astonishment and 
wonder at the circumstances, in which she found herself. 



GEXERAL DEVEL0PMEN:T OF SOMNAMBULISM. It 

Miss Dorfer, and most of my other somnambulists, on 
awakening, are startled when they look round, and are 
frequently much surprised at seeing the company about 
them. Unless they have been subjected to tiresome 
experiments while asleep, they feel refreshed, and go 
about their work with a lively spirit. Miss Krueger 
praised the somnambulic sleep as a pleasure, invariably 
refreshing and strengthening. Mrs. Kienesberger re- 
presented it as comparable to a recovery from sick- 
ness. Miss Atzmannsdorfer always felt active and 
light-hearted after a somnambulic sleep. Miss Beyer 
spoke highly of the refreshment which she felt after 
sleeping in my quiet house, and the strengthening which 
such undisturbed sleep brought to her. All the som- 
nambulists spoke in like manner, unless some peculiar 
illness oppressed them. 

Such is a brief sketch of the ordinary coui'se of som- 
nambulism. We will now examine some of its pecu- 
liarities in detail. 



18 BOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 



CHAPTER II. 

EXTERNAL CAUSES OF SOMNAMBULISM. 

§ 14. Sensitiveuess necessary. — The internal cause 
of somnambulism is as yet unknown to us. It appears 
from my investigation that all persons capable of going 
into somnambulism, possess the quality of sensitiveness. 
All persons, without exception, whom I have seen in 
somnambulic sleep were highly sensitive. A somnam- 
bulist will never be found wanting in sensitive impres- 
sibility. Sensitiveness is a necessary precondition to 
somnambulism. 

Although we know of no physiological causal con- 
nection between sensitiveness and somnambulism, and 
know none of the internal causes of the latter state, 
yet we know many of its external inducements, and of 
the excitements which bring it on. In studying these 
we shall gradually approach the internal course of 
these wonderful - phenomena, and perhaps we may, at 
some day, unveil them. But in these investigations 
we must be careful to stand fast by the facts — by the 
scientific facts — and trust to nothing else — to no suppo- 
sitions or imaginations, no matter how closely they 
may appear to be related to established principles. 
But all the facts must be kept in view. The laws of 
logical reasoning must be closely observed. Here it 
is particularly that the pliysicians have committed 



EXTERNAL CAUSES OF SOMNAMBULISM. 19 

their errors in regard to sonmambulism, and have done 
indescribable evil to science. The cause of their error 
is easely to be understood. Their professional action 
is governed by probabilities, often by mere supposi- 
tions. The diagnosis of most diseases is a mere matter 
of probability from first to* last; the wisest physician 
guesses well ; the others as well as "they can ; and in 
numberless cases even the wisest can do no more than 
guess at the disease and the best propable remedy. 
In this manner the physician is accustomed to suppo- 
sition and guess work. His whole scientific education, 
his whole method of recognizing fact in natural philo- 
sophy, and his modes of reasoning are trained in this 
path. Thus we often see imaginative physicians, gov- 
erned by a lively habit of associating ideas, and more 
fitted to be poets than doctors, losing themselves in the 
most adventurous combinations of the powers of nature. 
And where could they find a more luxuriant field for 
a tumbling-ground, than that of the darkly attractive 
somnambulism ? There they tie together the under- 
most and the uppermost ; there they mix in genial 
union what should remain miles apart. The more sin- 
gular the juxtaposition of the most inconsistent pheno- 
mena, the greater is the admiration of the multitude. 
By such methods the study of somnambulism has fallen 
into the deepest disgrace with sober science, and at 
last she has turned her eyes away from it entirely. 
For this result, somnambulism itself is not at all to 
blame, but only the illogical, the unscientific, the com- 
pletely false method in which it has been handled by 
many physicians from the time of Mcsmer to the present 
day. And when feeling, faith, religion and the spirit- 
worlfl wore mixed u]) with the question, wliat liope was 



20 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

there for success in philosophic investigation? Faith 
and knowledge cannot exist together. The former 
rests upon authority and natural disposition, the latter 
upon facts and evidence. Evidence fails where faith 
is necessary : and where there is no evidence there is 
no knowledge. Science recognizes no proposition as 
true until it has been established by proof, and is stern- 
ly hostile to every thing else. Where demonstrative 
evidence is impossible there must at least be a strongly 
supported induction. This principle dare not be neg- 
lected in natural science, and least of all in the regard 
to somnambulism ; and I shall observe it strictly in 
this investigation. 

§ 15. Coolness favorable. — A cool temperature is as 
favorable to somnambulism as it is to ordinary sleep. 
Misses Atzmannsdorfer, Beyer, Zinkel, Reichel, Krue- 
ger and others, when restless from warmth, soon fell 
into somnambulism if they became cool. 

Such coolness might be caused by the wind. South 
winds, and still more west winds hinder somnambulic 
sleep ; north winds and cool east winds induce it. 
When Misses Atzmannsdorfer, Reichel, and Mrs. 
Kienesberger went from my country-house into the 
park, they were often afraid of becoming somnambulic 
under the influence of the east wind, and sometimes 
did fall into that state. 

Rain has a similar influence, particularly when it 
occurs in hot weather. Many sensitives fall into long 
fits of somnambulism when a cold rain comes on. 
Storms in the heat of summer always dispose sensitives 
towards somnambulism. 



EXTERNAL CAUSES OP SOMNAMBULISM. 21 

§ 16. Somnambulism caused by negative od.— The 

influence of negative od from all substances is favor- 
able to sleep upon all high sensitives. Miss Blahusch 
one evening, in the dark chamber, fell every moment 
into irresistible sleepiness ; and it was found that there 
were a number of large crystals lying near, the nega- 
tive poles being towards her. I turned them about 
and the attacks of somnambulism ceased. Magnets 
had the same effect. The northward pole invariably 
caused somnambulism, and particularly in Misses 
Nowotny, Sturmann, Blahusch, Dorfer, Weigand, 
Reichel, Atzmannsdorfer and Beyer. I placed a 
magnetic wand, as tall as a man, near the left side 
of Miss Beyer, she standing up and holding it in 
her hand, with the northward pole near her head ; 
and in less than half a minute she was in somnam- 
bulism. When Miss Atzmannsdorfer could not sleep 
at night, it was her custom to get this wand and 
take it to bed with her. She knew from experience 
that when it lay at her left side, with the northward 
pole towards her head, she would soon go to sleep. 
But then she continued to sleep so long as the wand 
lay at her side. It has happened that she has gone 
to sleep with it in the evening, and on going to see 
her the next afternoon at three o'clock, I have found 
her still in the somnambulic sleep, and could not awaken 
her until I had the wand out of bed. But the wand in 
these cases reached only to the eyes and where the 
nerve of the forehead leading backward lies beneath 
the skin ; otherwise the influence was hostile to sleep, 
as may be easily understood. I tried similar experi- 
ments with Miss Krueger, and she also was somnam- 
bulic. Lady Elise von Seckendorf laid both hands 



22 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

on the unlike poles of a five-leaved horse-shoe mag- 
net, and in a few seconds she had fallen into somnam- 
bulism which lasted an hour. If I placed magnets, in 
unlike pairings, under the feet of Miss Atzmannsdorfer 
while she was in somnambulic sleep, she continued to 
sleep till the magnets were removed. The same lady 
stood once near the northern end of an iron wire, 
thirty feet long, stretched in the direction of the me- 
ridian, and took hold of it in her left hand, she was 
so oppressed by somnambulic sleepiness that I was 
compelled to place her at the southern end of the wire, 
to avoid being disturbed in my experiments ; and there 
she remained wide awake. I could mention facts of 
this kind by the hundred, for in daily intercourse with 
highly sensitive persons they were constantly recur- 
ring, and at last I took no more note of them. 

All these cases prove that the magnetic j^yoles, jpartio 
ularly the northward pole in its unlike influence upon 
the left side of the high sensitive^ induce somnamhulism 
easily and quickly. 

§ 17. By electricity. — In like manner electricity is 
an excellent means of causing somnambulic sleep ; that 
is positive electricity which throws the person into the 
negative state. Miss Atzmannsdorfer felt the electrical 
current streaming from points like a cool breeze, and 
at once it made her drowsy. On another occasion, 
when I turned currents towards her from positively 
electrified points, she felt them as a very cold wind, 
and this across the room. The influence was so sopo- 
rific that she went asleep every minute during my in- 
vestigation, and I had to awaken her repeatedly. The 
same results were observed in experiments with Miss 



EXTERNAL CAUSES OF SOMXAJIBULISM. 23 

Reichel and other sensitives ; and the tendency of po- 
sitive electricity to produce somnambulism was shown 
on every trial. 

§ 18. By organic substances. — All organic substances 
have somniferous influence upon sensitives disposed to 
somnambulism. I shall first mention some plants. 
When Miss Atzmannsdorfer was in her most sensitive 
condition, she found nothing more cool and agreeable 
than to approach a solitary tree, with dense foliage, 
standing alone in a meadow. But scarcely would she 
yield to her desire to lie down in its shadow, before 
she would fall into somnambulism. Often when she 
went out walking in the wood about my residence, she 
would be absent so long as to cause anxiety for her ; 
and on these occasions she had always fallen into som- 
nambulism under some tree, and remained there for 
hours in her dreams. It was the same with Miss* 
Reichel and Mrs. Kienesberger. But this influence 
continued only so long as the trees were in full leaf, 
and disappeared as the leaves fell in the autumn. 
Consequently, the influence was owing to the emission 
of od under the heightened organic activity ; and more 
particularly to the negative outpouring of the Caudex 
ascendens through leaves and buds. 

§ 19. By plants. — Plants diff'cr in their somniferous 
influence. All my somnambulists assured me that the 
rose was the best of soporifics ; and not only the flow- 
ers, the leaves of which they made into salad and ate, 
but also the bushes were descril)ed as liaving this qual- 
ity, by Miss Atzmannsdorfer, Rcicliel, Beyer, Leopol- 
der, and Mrs. Kienesberger. I paid little attention to 



24 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

these assertions, and ascribed them to general love of 
roses. It was only when Miss Beyer told me that, 
next to the roses, she considered the blossoms of the 
pear and apple-trees to be the greatest vegetable sopo- 
rifics, and very similar in their influence to the roses, 
and when Miss Zinkel confirmed the statements of 
Miss Beyer, that I began to attach importance to this 
idea. The pomaceas [apple kind], and the rosaceas 
[rose kind] , are near akin, and belong to the same 
class of rosifloras. Nature has distinguished these 
group of plants from others, — the roots of the Poma- 
ceas, for instance, containing the peculiar substance 
known as pJilorkisine, — and has given them a singular 
somniferous influence upon the keen excitability of 
high-sensitives. Chemistry will, in time, explain the 
singularity. My successors, in these investigations, 
will examine many other plants, with the aid of high- 
sensitives, and their labor will be of the greatest value 
to physiology, chemistry and therapeutics. 

§ 20. By human od. — The out-streamings of human 
od, in their different degrees, have a strong influence 
on the somnambulic condition. On the 31st July, 
1845, 1 arrived at home after a long journey, and found 
Miss Atzmannsdorfer in so highly sensitive a state 
that she fell into somnambulism every day. I went 
into the room where she was and spoke to her, and, 
within two or three minutes, she felt cool and fell into 
somnambulic sleep. The near approach of others — 
of my son, my daughter, the servants in the liouse, or 
any one else — had flie same effect upon lier. Tlio near 
proximity of any one for several minutes, brought on 
the sleep. Tliis extreme sensitiveness continued for 



EXTERNAL CAUSES OF SOMNAMBULISM. 25 

ten or twelve days, at the end of whieli time it moder- 
ated, and she could remain awake for some time, with 
others at her side. If I wished to speak with her in 
a waking condition during that period, I had to keep 
the whole width of the room between us, and even that 
precaution did not help much. When she had once 
fallen asleep, she could not awake so long as I was 
near her. My departure was always soon followed 
by her awakening. If she had slept long previous to 
my approach and was about to wake up, her sleep 
gained new strength from my presence, and continued 
until I went away, soon after which it ceased. When 
other persons spoke with her during sleep, her awaken- 
ing was delayed as long as the conversation lasted. 
Thus it was in July and August ; in November her 
sensitiveness to the cooling influence of my odic atmos- 
phere had decreased but little, and she could seldom 
be near me ten minutes without falling asleep. Mrs. 
Lederer was sensitive to a like degree. The presence 
of her physician for five minutes was sufficient to cast 
her into somnambulism. If I sat down near to Miss 
Kynast, to converse with her in the dark chamber, the 
somnambulic influence was soon irresistible. The 
same was the case with Miss Blahusch, except that I 
always arrested the influence by backward passes. 
Miss Krueger lay down squarely upon a sofa, I lay 
down at her side, my right near to her left. She soon 
felt the somnambulic influence and she had scarcely 
expressed her appreliension of its approach before slic 
was asleep. Miss Weigand continued stubbornly in 
somnambulism so long as men stood near her, and even 
if the time had come wlien slie usually woke up. Miss 
Dorfor said she felt cool while I was experimenting 

2 



26 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAl^rP. 

witli her, and then in the midst of the work she ad- 
dressed me as " Thou," and I saw that she had gone 
over into somnambulism. Miss Zinkel, in her impres- 
sible periods had to keep away from me, if she did not 
wish to fall into an irresistible and speedy sleep. 
When she was lively and active, and came near me, 
with her left towards my right side, she soon began to 
feel cool, her arms were covered with goose flesh, her 
eyes watered, she began to yawn, and if she did 
not then flee at once, she was asleep in a few 
seconds. Miss Beyer in one of her most impres- 
sible periods, came to me and I was arranging some 
papers, so that I might go to work with her, but 
before I had done, she was asleep ; my right side 
during this time being towards her front. The pre- 
sence of her physician. Dr. Blass, had the same in- 
fluence upon her ; fifteen minutes was enough to throw 
her into sleep, even when he remained at some dis- 
tance from her. She could rarely remain awake more 
than half an hour when working with me. When she 
fell asleep on such occasions I left her for an hour, or 
she walked about the room for a while until I awak- 
ened her with backward passes. I could then work 
on with her for another half hour, at the end of which 
time the same ceremony was repeated. When the in- 
fluence was strong upon her, she felt a coolness which 
changed to cold and shivering. 

These examples are sufficient to show that high sen- 
sitives are strongly impressed, then made drowsy, and 
finally thrown into somnambulism by the approach of 
others. And since a cool sensation accompanies the 
influence, the latter must be od-negative, accumulative, 
preceding and inducing sleep. 



EXTERNAL CAUSES OF SOMXAMBULISM. 27 

§ 21. Fingers under toes.— One of the strongest 
soporifics I found to consist in placing the fingers of 
my right hand diagonally under the toes of the left 
foot. I tried Miss Zinkel in this manner, and in less 
than a minute she felt a coolness, her eyes watered, she 
yawned against her will while excited in thinking 
about other subjects than somnambulism, and she felt 
the near approach of sleep. I had to remove my fin- 
gers to prevent it from taking possession'of her. On 
another occasion I took hold of her toes with my un- 
like hands, and almost immediately she was in som- 
nambulism. When I did the same to Miss Atzmanns- 
dorfer, she lying in bed, she felt an agreeably cool 
sensation, and in little more than a minute she had 
made the transition from ordinary consciousness into 
sonmambulic dream. The transition was still more 
speedy with Miss Beyer. I had only to place my fin- 
gers under her toes as she sat in her chair, and in a 
moment she shivered and slept. In her sensitive pe- 
riods I could do the same with her hands. If I laid 
the fingers of my right hand crosswise, pointing out- 
wards in her left hand, she soon went to sleep, but 
many minutes were required. The coolness, yawning 
and drowsiness occupied some time before sleep oc- 
curred ; whereas with the hands under the toes the 
sleep followed almost immediately. When Mrs. 
Anschiitz lay in bed holding in her left the right 
hand of her husband, she soon fell into somnambulism. 
The influence from the hand went up to the head 
through the brachial plexus, and from the foot through 
the whole spinal marrow, wherefore the latter method 
was the more powerful. 



28 SOMNAMBULISM AXD CRAMP. 

§ 22. By blowiug. — Blowing, particularly upon the 
head, is a very ancient means of producing sleep ; and 
the magnetic physicians use it without understanding 
the nature of its operation. Its influence may now be 
easely understood. As in all other processes of che- 
mical decomposition, respiration is accompanied by a 
development of negative od which is carried off by the 
breath ; and this again must have a cooling influence 
on the positive portions of the human frame, and hence 
__ its soporific power. Miss Zinkel found blowing to be 
cool and agreeable only on the left side of her head ; 
on the right it was warm and disagreeable. This fact 
accords precisely with the od-negative character of the 
breath. But the sensation of coolness was so predo- 
minant in the head that the warmth on the right was 
not noticed until I inquired particularly about it. 
Misses Atzmannsdorfer, Reichel and Krueger imme- 
diately felt the soporific power of the breath, and the 
last remained asleep so long as I breathed upon the 
corner of her head. Thus waking and sleep, fact and 
fancy, truth and wild imaginings were separated only 
by a breath ! 

§ 23. By the glance. — According to the assertion 
of my somnambulists there is a strong soporific power 
in the glance. Miss Girtler, when awake, carefully 
avoided the eye of her physician, because she knew 
from experience that the meeting of their glances 
would cause her to fall into somnambulism. Mrs. Le- 
derer was also afraid of the eyes of her physician for 
the same reason. When Miss Beyer is in her most 
excitable condition, a sharp glance by her physician, 
into her eye, will throw her into sleep at once. I sliall 



EXTERNAL CAUSES OF SOMXAiTBULISM. 29 

not now consider the question whether this be the im- 
mediate influence of the glance, but shall only remind 
the reader that, according to my investigations, the eye 
is one of the least od-luminous portions of the body. 

Somnambulism may be induced by human od, applied 
through conductors. I placed a wooden staff in the 
right hand of Dr. Horst, of Vienna, and Mrs. Lederer 
was thrown into sleep by the touch of the stick upon 
her left hand. Before going to sleep she described the 
feeling produced by the stick as cool and agreeable. 

§ 24. By passes. — Passes are the most powerful 
means of producing somnambulism in sensitives. This 
is a well-known fact, and I shall restrict myself here to 
the enumeration of some of the most interes'ting vouch- 
ers. In trying some experiments not connected with 
somnambulism, I made some passes over Miss Kynast, 
from the head to the abdomen, and she immediately 
lost her consciousness in sleep. Two or three passes 
would at any time throw Mrs. Lederer into sleep. 
While Miss Beyer was sitting on the sofa, and I was 
six feet distant, I made two or three passes, and she 
was asleep. I thought I would try an experiment with 
farpasses on Mrs. Kowats. There were three rooms 
between us, and she was made so drowsy by my mo- 
tions that I was compelled to stop. Miss Martha Leo- 
polder was with Mrs. Kowats, and barely managed to 
keep awake. I made several passes over the head of 
Miss Zinkel, who at that time had never been somnam- 
bulic, and she complained of giddiness. She sat down, 
and I made several passes over her body, in the hope" 
of driving off tlie giddiness, which I supposed to be 
owing to an accumulation of od. Scarcely had I done 



30 SOMNAMBULISM AXD CRAMP. 

SO, when she fell into somnambulism, for the first time 
in her life. Whenever I made any downward passes 
over her, she felt the premonitory symptoms of som- 
nambulism, coolness, watering of the eyes, yawning 
and drowsiness ; but to avoid throwing her into com- 
plete sleep, I generally stopped when she became 
drowsy. It is clearly to be seen that a sensitive per- 
son who has never been somnambulic, may easily be 
led over into that state. Lady [Freifrdidei7i] Elise 
von Seckendorf became somnambulic when I made one 
pass over her right hand with my right, or with a crys- 
tal of gypsum. The dispersive influence of downward 
passes, made even with substances of a like odic pole, 
had the same effect. The second pass with the same 
crystal over Miss Weigand's right hand threw her into 
somnambulism, and another pass brought on cramps. 
At certain times Miss Beyer would fall asleep after a 
single unlike downward pass made over her toes. I 
found Miss Eeichel once in somnambulism, and after 
conversing with her for half an hour, was about to go 
away, when she requested me to make some downward 
passes over her, so that she might sleep more soundly 
after I should go. At the eighth pass she said it was 
enough. Thus it happened in unnumbered cases, that 
more or fewer doivmoard 2oasses jyroduced all the char- 
acteristic symptoms of somnamhuUsm in sensitive per- 
sons; hut never did I succeed in having the same influ- 
ence upon non-sensitives; and according to my experience 
none hut the sensitives can he throion into somnamhuUsm 
by art. 

§ 25. By sunshine, &c. — Sunshine which enlivens and 
refreshes all the rest of nature, has a tendency to 



EXTERXAL CAUSES OF SOMNAMBULISM. 31 

induce somnambulism. Miss Reichel complained of a 
similar tendency on her system. Miss Sturmann and 
others made similar remarks. But the influence of the 
sun's rays, like their odic nature, is compound, and it 
differs according to circumstances. 

There are a number of other substances which may in- 
duce somnambulism. Though Frederick Weidlich liked 
the taste of bitter almonds, yet on the other hand he 
had a great dislike to them, because he had learned 
by experience that they had a tendency to throw him 
into somnambulism. Chloroform in water had a 
cooling and soporific effect on Miss Beyer. On one 
occasion, while in somnambulism, such a mixture was 
held under her nose, she expressed pleasure at smelling 
it, said it was cooling and would make her sleep more 
soundly ; thus having the same influence upon her as 
downward passes had upon Miss Reichel. A vial of 
cliloroform placed in Miss Beyer's hand, caused a 
strong sensation of cold, and in some minutes brouglit 
on sleep. Water, strongly od-negative, is the strongest 
soporific substance known to me. When Misses Wei- 
gand, Sturmann and others drank a tumblerful of such 
water they went off at once into somnambulism. Miss 
Sturmann would sink down unconscious before drink- 
ing half tlie contents of the tumbler ; those about her 
had to take care that the glass did not fall and spill 
the water over her dress. I was the daily witness of 
such cases. 

§ 26. Summary.— If we take in at one glance all 
the circumstances under wliicli somnambulism begins, 
we may discover some general characteristics which 
mark all its action. 



32 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

First, a cool temperature favors it, as do the north 
and east winds, rainy weather and the outbreak of 
storms in the hot seasons. The effect of this coolness 
will be understood, when we remember that the od- 
negative poles of crystals, the northward poles of mag- 
nets, the electric currents in the air, all which favor 
and induce somnambulism, cause a sensation of cool- 
ness to the sensitive. These agencies all have a cool- 
ing influence on the left side of sensitives. All are 
unlike to the left side, and unlikeness always produced 
the agreeably cool feeling, but particularly under 
strong od-negative influence. This is the case with 
sunshine, which though of a mixed character, is yet 
predominantly od-negative 5 also with chloroform, a 
cool, strongly od-negative liquid, and finally also with 
water charged with negative od. The influence of 
vegetables and animals upon sensitives is of the same 
nature. A tree and wood, in full leaf, breathe out a 
strong atmosphere of negative od. The approach of 
human beings always has a cooling influence on sensi- 
tives ; and the cause of this is that persons facing each 
other in ordinary positions, bring the unlike poles 
opposite to each other. A similar influence was 
excited when I placed the fingers of my right hand 
under the left toes of a sensitive, or when I blew my 
od-negative breath upon her head, or when her left 
hand was touched by a staff held in the right hand 
of another person. But the mightiest accent in pro- 
ducing somnambulism, the downward pass, includes all 
these in itself — whether made with magnets, crystals, or 
hands. In every case its influence was cool and neme- 
tic — weak when made by presenting like to like, and 
in full power when like was passed over unlike from the 



EXTERNAL CAUSES OF SOMNAMBULISM. 33 

centre to the extremities. And now we have arrived 
at that important principle, drawn from an extensive 
experience, — somnamhulism is caused in sensitives hy 
nemetic influences^ and particularly hy unlike and od- 
negative agents. We shall find occasion hereafter to 
look farther into the conditions under which somnam- 
bulism is produced. 

2* 



34 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 



CHAPTER III. 

EXTERNAL INFLUENCES WHICH DISTURB SOMNAMBULIC 
SLEEP. 

§ 27. How to prevent somnambulism! — We shall 

put the principle announced in the end of the last 
chapter to trial by examining the opposite phenomena 
— the removal of the condition induced by nemetic 
influences. The two investigations must control and 
confirm each other mutually, in case they be properly 
managed. 

When Miss Blahusch had sat for awhile by my side^ 
m the dark chamber, she began to get drowsy, and, if 
undisturbed, went into somnambulism and exhibited 
all its symptoms. This result interrupted the experi- 
ments which I wished to make with her in the normal 
state ; and I studied means of keeping her awake. I 
found that upward passes, from the body over the face 
to the eyes, were always effectual to arrest the drow- 
siness. A few such passes, oftentimes a single one, 
would suffice to restore her at once to her natural 
liveliness. The same facts were repeatedly observed 
with Mrs. Bauer, Baroness Natorp, Mrs. Keinesberger, 
and Misses Leopolder, Atzmannsdorfer, Rupp, Beyer 
and others. In every case a slight nemetic manage- 
ment blew away the tendency to somnambulism. 



EXTEEXAL IXFLUENCES DISTURBIXG THE SLEEP. 35 

When somnambulic sleep has commenced it may 
easily be dispelled. All the so-styled magnetic physi- 
cians have a multitude of means to destroy it. Such 
heroic expedients as tubs of water before the bed, 
and-so-forth, are entirely unnecessary. I know a Mrs. 

L , whose son, between the years of ten and twelve, 

was a somnambulist. After trying every other remedy 
in vain for the supposed vice, she began to use the rod. 
When he arose in his bed she began to beat him, 
but she never succeeded in awakening him. She 
smote away upon the bare flesh until it was all raw 
and bleeding, but he showed no sign of pain and 
seemed to pay no attention to the whipping. The 
poor mother was frightened ; she did not know the 
meaning of this insensibility to pain. 

§ 28. How to awaken somnambulism. — If, instead 
of such treatment, she liad used a few upward passes 
over his body, she would have succeeded better. 
When Mrs. Lederer, Mrs. Kienesberger, Misses Bla- 
husch, Zinkel, Kynast and Krueger were somnambulic, 
I awakened them with a few double upward passes, 
from the pit of the stomach to the eyes. Four or five 
passes over the eyes to the temples suflBced to wake up 
Misses Atzmannsdorfer and Krueger. Miss Weigand 
awakened as soon as the fingers of the right hand Iiad 
passed a short distance over tlie stomach. I awakened 
Miss Beyer by two or three upward passes over her 
toes. Miss Reichel awoke when a pass was made, 
from her abdomen over her head to tlie back of lier 
neck, with the negative pole of a magnet, or with 
a piece of lodestone. On one occasion Miss Zinkel 
had attacks of colic : I cured them by one or two 



36 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

passes with my right hand, and at the same time she 
went to sleep. I supposed her sleep to be normal, 
and at the end of a quarter of an hour, shook her 
to wake her up ; but she was in somnambulism, and 
spoke to me, " thouing" me. I made a few passes 
from her eyes to her ears, and from her neck to 
her eyes, and she awoke. When Mrs. Lederer and 
Miss Dorfer were lying asleep, they would soon awake, 
if I stood at the head of the bed. Miss Atzmanns- 
dorfer was several times awakened by the mere walk- 
ing of some ono past the head of her bed. 

§ 29. The shock from a person departing. — A sin- 
gular cause of awakening is found in the shock of se- 
paration. When Miss Beyer was in somnambulic 
sleep, in the presence of her physician or myself, the 
departure of either would awaken her. When Mrs. 
Anschuetz was somnambulic, holding her husband's 
right hand in her left, she was at once awakened by his 
departure. If he did not wish to wake her up, he had 
to go away slowly and gradually. Once he thought 
himself far enough away to be able to move briskly, 
but the consequence was that she started, and almost 
awoke. 

I have had repeated opportunities, of late, to observe 
a singular mode of awakening in Miss Zinkel. When 
near the end of her sleep, she often said, " I shall now 
soon awake ; I feel it coming in my eyes." It may 
be inferred from this that a nemetic process takes 
place, and is perceptible to the sleeper for several 
minutes before it restores him to wakefulness. Then, 
before waking, she used the points of the fingers, 
bunched together, to make passes over and touchi'ig 



EXTEEXAL IXFLUEXCE DISTURBIXG SLEEP. 37 

the eyes to the temples, with odic slowness ; thus awak- 
ing herself by the most methodical upward passes, as 
though she had thoroughly studied the process, which, 
however, was entirely unknown to her in her normal 
condition. 

§ 30. Somnambulism an od-negative state of the 

nerves. — The methods of preventing and dispelling 
somnambulism have not yet been so fully studied as 
the means of inducing it ; but, so far as observed, they 
are all accompanied by influences which accumulate od 
from without to the nervous centres. Such influences 
characterize the upward passes to cure drowsiness, 
and upward passes to stop somnambulic sleep, either 
over the whole body, over the pit of the stomach, over 
the eyes or over the toes, with the hands or the poles 
of a magnet ; and the same may be said of the efi'ect 
of a person standing at the head of a somnambulist, 
of the shock of separation, and of the sleep-waker's 
own passes. This leads us to the principle that som- 
nambulism is disturbed and dispelled by soretic in- 
fluences on the nervous system ; and this principle sup- 
ports and confirms the one previously arrived at in 
regard to the influences which cause and favor the 
somnambulic sleep. 

When we take these two principles in view at once 
— the production of sleep-waking, by the dispersion, 
and its deduction by the accumulation, of od — we 
arrive at the important deduction that somnambulism 
is an od-negative state of the nervous system. 



38 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 



I 



CHAPTER IV. 

CRAMP. 

§ 31. Wliat is the od-positive condition ? — The ques- 
tion now suggests itself : — If somnambulism be the od- 
negative condition of the nervous system, what is the 
state under the dominion of positive od ? We find all 
kind of cramps in intimate connection with somnam- 
bulism ; and like the latter they are always the com- 
panions of high sensitiveness. It was, therefore, an 
important portion of my task to investigate whether 
there were not certain general relations connecting 
cramp with the odic influences, and whether it might 
be included and securely classed among the phenomena 
of sensitiveness. For the purpose of approaching the 
solution of these questions, we shall consider the cir- 
cumstances under which those cramps, coming within 
the range of our present investigation, occur. 

§ 32. Cramp common to sensitives. — Most sensitives 
are predisposed to cramps. Their diseases have usu- 
ally more or less connection with cramps. All high- 
sensitives suffer much from them — at least I have found 
no exception. Mr. Sturm, otherwise a healthy man, 
has frequent attacks of cramps, which reach from the 
feet to the hips. Very slight causes suffice to cramp 
various portions of Miss Dorfer's body. Mr. Bollman 



CRAMP. 39 

has been troubled with cramps in his hands, arms and 
feet, since childhood. Miss Weigelsberg was often 
seized with a cramp in the tongue, which would not 
permit her to speak ; and any little surprise might 
bring on this disagreeable condition. Miss Reichel 
often has cramps of laughing, weeping and mouth-con- 
tortions. About a year before I became acquainted 
with her, she lay, on one occasion, immovable for a 
considerable time in cramp ; and her friends, suppos- 
ing her to be dead, were about bury her. Chevalier 
Sidorowicz often suffers with cramps of the breast. 
Misses Zinkel, Beyer, Leopolder, Sturmann and others, 
are thrown into cramps by the slightest causes. Ba- 
roness Natorp, fell ill, after delivery of a child, and 
lay for forty hours immovable in a spasm. I could 
racntioH a multitude of other similiar cases; but there 
is nothing peculiar about them. Everybody may be 
attacked by such cramps, and I call attention here only 
to the fact tliat cases occur chiefly to sensitives. 

The transitions from colic and headache to cramps, 
sometimes through swoon and • sometimes without it, 
are very various. Miss Nowotny^uffered for years by 
headache without cramps; then the former ceased and 
the latter began. Mrs. Joanna Anschuetz was troubled, 
in her youth, by almost constant headache. This dis- 
appeared during a certain period, and cramps set in ; 
and they now cause her continuous suffering. In oth- 
ers, whose health improved, the diseases followed tlie 
reverse order. Miss Ernestine Anschuetz suffered, for- 
merly, with cramps, but she is now better ; she is free 
from cramp, but has licadache. 

§ 33. Cramp caused by magnets.— We shall now 



40 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

examine the causes of cramps in sensitive persons, and 
the several odic influences which accompany it. 
Cramps may be induced in sensitives by the magnet. 
Every magnet, whether a horse-shoe or bar, when 
pointed with either pole towards Miss Nowotny's hand, 
made it stiff and induced a painless cramp. Small 
magnets, as large as a finger, had to lie in her hand for 
some minutes before they caused cramp and tied her 
fingers together. Larger magnets exercised the same 
influence in less time ; very large ones caused a more 
rigid cramp, and the hand was fi:s:ed so firmly upon 
the magnet that the sensitive was not able alone to 
loosen her hold. In the absence of her physician, she 
was accustomed to make passes with a magnet 
over herself, to bring on sleep. On one occasion, she 
fell asleep with a single-leaved horseshoe magnet in her 
hand. After a time, she awoke ; the hand clasping 
the magnet was cold, white, and so rigid, that she could 
not open it. This cramp was without pain or any pe- 
culiar sensation, and extended half way up the arm. 
When a horseshoe magnet was placed on the eyes of 
Miss Nowotny, it forced her to close them, and she 
could not open them until the cramp ceased. K the 
magnet was placed on her teeth, her lips became rigid, 
and her speech was obstructed. Perhaps this kind of 
a lock might be of value to husbands. I requested 
Miss Nowotny to lie down upon her back, with her 
head to the north, on a sofa, I then laid a bar-magnet, 
two feet long, over her stomach, with the northward 
pole towards the east : and thus the od-negative pole 
was on her od-positive side. The position was slightly 
disagreeable, but she submitted and remained quiet. 
I then turned the bar, end for end, so that the like hu- 



CRAMP. 41 

man and magnetic poles were brought together ; she 
could bear this for only a short time ; a disagreeable 
lukewarm current began to flow to her head, and a cold 
one to her feet ; followed by colic, swelling of the 
stomach with a worm-like creeping sensation, burning 
and watering of the eyes, headache, and cramping-like 
pains. At this stage of the experiment, I stopped. I 
laid the magnet, right-angle-wise, at her side, with one 
pole pointing at her. When the negative northward 
pole was turned towards her left, positive side, she felt 
a cool, agreeable sensation ; but after a while, the 
equalization became complete, and then the soretic re- 
action of accumulating negative-od began, with luke- 
warmness, colic, headache, and cramping pains. The 
southward pole, directed at her right side, had the 
same effect. Then, on the other hand, I directed the 
northward pole towards her right side, she was soon 
attacked by the known phenomena of severe cramp. 
Finally, the southward pole pointed at her left side, 
caused heat, worm-like creeping and roaring in the 
head, cold and twitchings in the feet, and soon cramp 
had taken possession of all the limbs. I made similar 
experiments, and obtained the same results, with Miss 
Krueger. 

Magnets exercised a similar influence upon Miss 
Sturmann, even at a distance. While standing four 
ste])s aljove her head, as she lay in bed, I took the 
anclior from a nine-leaved liorseshoe magnet, and im- 
mediately she was seized by a tonic cramp. If I did 
the same at the like distance below her feet, she fell 
into clonic cramp. One evening, while Professor 
Li})pich was engaged with her, and Dr. Gaal was 
standing witli me at a distance of thirteen steps from 



42 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

her, Dr. G. accidentally and slightly removed the ar- 
mature from a nine-leaved magnet which I held in my 
hand ; and almost immediately she fell into clonic 
cramps. I often saw Misses Atzmannsdorfer and Krue- 
ger thrown into cramps by magnets, which I took into 
their presence. These cramps began very soon, when 
I turned like magnetic poles upon their sides, but im- 
mediately when I made a slight upward pass with the 
southward pole directed at their left sides. 

§ 34. By sitting with back to the west.— During the 
first days of the Catamenia, Miss Zinkel was thrown 
into violent cramps by sitting down on a chair with 
the back turned to the west. And even in the inter- 
vals between the monthly periods, if her nerves were 
in an excitable condition, sitting with her back to the 
west brought on cramp of the stomach very speedily. 
A turn of her chair with the back to the north was at 
once followed by relief. Miss Nowotny was affected 
in the same manner as Miss Zinkel by sitting with her 
back to the west. 

§ 35. By crystals. — Crystals have an influence si- 
milar to that of magnets. When I held the od-positive 
pole of a ten-inch long gypsum crystal towards the 
left hand of Miss Atzmannsdorfer, her first sensation 
was a disagreeable lukewarmness; her second sensation 
was as of ants crawling over her skin ; the third, sto- 
mach-ache ; the fourth, twiching and internal waving 
motions of the arm to the shoulder, with headache; the 
fifth was spasmodic yawning; the sixth, burning of the 
eyes with flow of tears ; and the seventh was the be- 
ginning of cramps, at which stage I put an end to the 
experiment. 



CRAMP. 43 

§ 36. By Metals. — Amorphous bodies of unipolar 
character, when they have a strong odic capacity, have 
much effect on persons disposed to cramps. In this 
class all the heavier metals are included. When Miss 
Atzmannsdorfer attempted to clean silver ware she 
was invariably attacked by cramps, which lasted for 
an hour, unless I was at hand to cure them. Frederick 
Weidlich never opens a door-latch with his bare hands, 
but always uses his coat-tail as a covering for his fin- 
gers, knowing that otherwise he would have stomach- 
ache, head-ache, and perhaps cramp. Misses Nowotny, 
Sturmann, Maix, Reichel and Atzmannsdorfer, accord- 
ing as they were in a more or less sensitive condition, 
had to use great care how they touched metallic sub- 
stances. TJie touch of door-locks, window-catches, 
spoons, knives and forks, scissors, jewelry, kitchen- 
ware, tin-plates, smoothing-irons, stoves, balusters, and 
other metallic articles, more particularly if of copper 
or brass, induced cramps. If Miss Atzmannsdorfer 
ventured in her most excitable periods to eat with a 
silver spoon, the muscles of her mouth soon became 
rigid, the spoon was sometimes fastened between the 
tee til and bitten crooked, and could not be removed 
until the cramp had exhausted itself. Miss Zinkel oc- 
casionally made fire in a large chamber stove of sheet 
iron; but she could seldom* get her fire kindled before 
slic had stomach-cramps. A young Princess von Win- 
disch-Graetz was exceedingly sensitive to odic in- 
fluences. Miss Atzmannsdorfer was given to lier as a 
companion on account of her cx[)erience in a similar 
sonsitivcness ; and that position she held until the 
death of the Princess. A silver spoon was sufficient 
to throw the latter into a cramp. She could scarcely 



44 SOMNAMBOLISM AND CRAMP. 

take silver coin into her hand before she haa a cramp. 
Once she wished to pay out one hundred gulden in 
silver; but she was unable to count it, and directed 
Miss Atzmannsdorfer to undertake the task. The lat- 
ter counted seventy gulden and fell into cramp. After 
some time she recovered and succeeded in getting to 
ninety gulden, where she was again arrested. After 
another recovery she succeeded in finishing the count. 
Princess von Windisch-Graetz could not bear the pre- 
sence of an ordinary looking-glass ; it made her sick, 
and gave her the headache ; and if she did not hurry 
away she would have severe cramps. The influence 
was nearly as strong on Miss Atzmannsdorfer. She 
had to go before the glass and then retire ten times 
before she could finish dressing ; an attempt to remain 
near the glass until she was done, was always punished 
by cramps. Quicksilver is peculiarly hurtful for sen- 
sitives; but all metals by their unipolar odic character 
cause cramp. 

§ 37. By crowds. — Human beings lying near one 
another have the same influence as magnets and cry- 
stals. If I lay down by the side of Misses Krueger 
and Atzmannsdorfer with my head to their feet, they 
at once cried out and sprang up ; and Miss Zinkel did 
the same, when in the same position, like sides were 
presented. The two former in these cases were thrown 
into severe cramps. When fifty or sixty students 
collected about the bed of Miss Atzmannsdorfer the 
accumulation of od in her system, threw her into a 
swoon, which ended in cramps. The presence of a 
crowd may cause cramps in sensitive persons. 

If I took the hands of Miss Weigand in my own, 



CRAMP. 45 

mine being crossed, she soon STvooned and then had 
attacks of cramp. When she folded her hands, she 
had stomach-ache, and head-ache and cramp-like pains. 
All similar od-positive influences induced cramps. 

§ 38. By light. — An assertion, that light alone may 
cause cramps, may cause astonishment ; but the asser- 
tion is nevertheless true. When Miss Krueger with 
a glass rod touched the green rays of an iris formed 
by sunlight passing a prism, she soon felt pain, and 
cramps followed. A similar trial of the influence of 
the green rays of moonlight was almost immediately 
followed by severe cramps. She was attacked in like 
manner when she stuck her forefinger into the green 
rays of the moonlight. I placed one end of an iron 
wire in Miss Atzmannsdorfer's hand and, upon the 
other end which reached into another room, I threw 
the green rays of sunlight. She did not know what 
I was doing, but she soon complained of a disagreeable 
feeling, became very faint, and then fell into cramp. 
Even the clear sunlight, which at first caused agree- 
able sensations, at last caused cramps. 

I placed an iron rod in a north-and-south position, 
laid a large gypsum crystal, from the mine of Saltz- 
burg, at the southern end of the rod and requested 
Miss Atzmannsdorfer to touch its other end. She did 
80, and felt disagreeable lukewarmness, stomach-ache, 
and then attacks of spasmodic yawning and finally 
cramps. 

§ 39. By upward passes. — Upward passes with 
hands are a certain moans of inducing cramps in high 
sensitives. But no person would ever intentionally 



46 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

subject another to tlie tortures of cramps for the mere 
sake of experiment, and therefore there is little oppor- 
tunity for observation except in such cases as occur 
accidentally. The slightest upward motions of my 
hands, near Miss Sturmann, Atzmannsdorfer, Reichel, 
Girtler, Kynast, Nowotny, Blahusch, Mrs. Anschuetz, 
Kienesberger, Kowats, Lederer, and others, suf&ced to 
induce cramp or its premonitory symptoms. Miss 
Beyer could not put on her stockings without feeling 
pains passing through her feet and back to her head, 
and she could barely escape cramp, if she hurried her- 
self. The cause of these sensations was evidently the 
upward passes which she gave herself in pulling on 
her stockings. On one occasion she was lying on the 
sofa suffering with cramps which I cured by down- 
ward passes, but whenever I moved my hands back- 
ward, even at a greater distance so as to make other 
downward passes, she was invariably drawn up in a 
tonic cramp. 

I accidently touched Miss Atzmannsdorfer near the 
middle of the back with my right forefinger. In a few 
minutes she had a severe headache, and soon after 
cramp. The touch of the same finger on the vertex of 
her head deprived her instantaneously of consciousness, 
and brought on twitching and clonic cramps. That 
place on the crown of the head called the vertex, 
whence the hair naturally turns towards all sides, is 
the most sensitive point in the frame. Misses Reichel, 
Maix, Sturmann and others were always thrown into 
cramps by my touching it. Its influence is explained 
by the fact that the od-stream from the finger flows 
upward-like upon the nerves known as the occipitalis 
fnajor and minor, the auric2ilo temporalis of the Par 



CRAMP. 47 

anserinus, the supratrodilearis, and the frontalis. Up- 
ward passes over the toes of Misses Sebastian and 
Zinkel brought on cramp in them. Some upward pas- 
ses over Miss Beyer's thumbs and toes threw her into 
cramp which came and went repeatedly during several 
days. I tried the range of the sensitiveness of Mrs. 
Kowats by making upward and downward passes at 
her through the doors of three rooms which were 
between us. When I went to see the effect of my 
passes, I found her winking with drowsiness, and en- 
deavoring to resist the approach of somnambulic sleep. 
That same night she had a severe attack of cramps, 
which were caused by my upward passes, made at a 
distance of forty steps from her. I had not foreseen 
this after-effect, but afterwards learned more of it by 
experience. A clear light was thrown on these cramp- 
inducing influences of upward passes by other experi- 
ments. I made passes with my left hand over Miss 
Zinkel's right arm from the elbow to the wrist but no 
further. I will give the name of part-passes to such 
motions. The effect was that the arm became cold, 
the hand warm and clammy, and was pervaded by a 
creeping and then by the sensation felt in the limbs 
when asleep. I made a similar experiment on her left 
hand with my right, making the passes from wrist to 
the roots of her fingers. The consequence was that 
the hand became cool, the fingers lukewarm, clammy 
and uncomfortable in feeling. A pass made with my 
thump and forefinger, one on each side of her hand, 
from the wrist to the root of her middle finger, made 
this finger warm, clammy and creeping in feeling, 
while the other parts of the hand were cold. I made 
passes with my left hand over her leg from the thigli 



48 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

to the ankle ; and tlie leg was made cool while the foot 
was warm, clammy and pervaded with a sensation of 
creeping. I then made double passes over her breast 
and body to the thighs ; the body became cool, and the 
legs and feet warm, and clammy and felt a creeping 
sensation. I then added four or five more passes of 
the same kind, and within a minute cramps began in 
the calves and feet and soon became painful. These 
cramps could be cured as easily as they were caused. 
A few downward passes, over the cramped portion of 
the body, sufficed to restore the normal temperature 
and easy position of the muscles. Upioard passes of 
every kind cause tonic and clonic cramps in all high 
sensitives. 

Even like downward passes cause cramp. Miss 
Beyer's physician made downward passes over her 
with crossed arms, and the consequences were colic, 
headache, and cramps in her fingers and arms. While 
the same lady was in menstruation, I made downward 
passes with my right hand over her left arm, after 
three or four passes it was rigid, with the fingers 
thrown back in tonic spasms. When I made similar 
passes over her toes, her legs became rigid. Down- 
ward passes, when continued too long, have the in- 
fluence of upward passes, and cause cramps in Miss 
Beyer's arms. 

Wet feet have a very hurtful efi'ect on Miss Zinkel, 
and gives her headache ; in Miss Beyer, who is more 
excitable, they cause stomach-ache and then cramps in 
the abdomen ; in Mrs. Kowats, they cause colic. 

§ 41. By the peculiar odic influeuce of individuals. — 

,The peculiar odic atmosphere of some persons, may 



CRAilP. 49 

cause cramp in high sensitives. Once when Miss 
Nowotny was in her most sensitive condition, she 
begged me to take away a gentleman, who was in the 
room, and whose presence made her feel heat, then 
stomach-ache, headache, and cramping pains. This 
gentleman was a polite, good-looking, elderly man, 
such as many others who went to see her about that 
time, and tliere was nothing disagreeable about him 
that I could perceive. He came afterwards and re- 
mained for a time in the room. The consequence was 
that she fell into a swoon, and then into severe cramp. 
A gentleman, who had been a benefactor to her, had the 
same influence upon her, and it required her greatest 
efforts to enable her to endure his presence. She 
could give no explanation of her sensations further 
than that the whole atmosphere about these gentlemen 
was a torture to her. I imagined that both had suf- 
fered severely from disease, which had permanently 
injured some of their internal organs and therefore 
gave out an unwholesome odic influence. This in- 
fluence is od-positive, and thus disposes sensitives to 
cramp. Miss Maix told me that a certain visitor of 
her's, had more than once caused her to faint ; and 
Miss Reichcl told me of many persons whose company 
was intolerable to her. 

I often heard Misses Reichcl, Beyer and Atzmanns- 
dorfer, Mrs. Kienesberger, and Mr. Frederick Weidlich 
complain that they were full of cramps which would 
ftoon break out. This was an anticipation taught by 
experience that certain peculiar sensations were the 
forerunners of cramp. They described these sensations 
as a general uneasiness, a dull pressure towards the 
head, sleepiness, anxious dreams, and total inability to 

3 



50 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

sleep. While Miss Reichel was in my house, she often 
did not sleep for several successive nights, and on one 
occasion not for three weeks. Miss Karban often suf- 
fered from inability to sleep. Frederick Weidlich had, 
from time to time, periods of sleeplessness, which ended 
with attacks of cramp. In these cases there was 
always a feeling of pressure towards the head — a sen- 
sation very different from that which precedes som- 
nambulism. Miss Zinkel often discovered in the morn- 
ings that she would have cramp in the evening or night 
by a certain sensation of heaviness which gradually 
extended from the feet through the legs, and then 
disappeared in a loss of feeling. All these are the 
symptoms of od-positive, accumulative influences. 
When she thus lay down, the death-like loss of feeling 
extended gradually through the abdomen, then into 
the chest and ended in somnambulism. Mrs. Anschuetz 
generally had cramps on the days succeeding those on 
which I visited her. Miss Zinkel could take part in 
table-tipping parties at the cost of some disagreable 
feeling, oppressive sensations in the breast, and stom- 
ach-ache ; but in the succeeding night, she was always 
attacked by shooting cramps, passing through the 
hands, feet, arms, nose, knees, temples, thighs, gums 
and so forth. 



§ 41. By mental excitement. — Miss Zinkel gave 
me the best description of the forcfeelings of approach- 
ing cramp and its companion, somnambulism. They 
seldom attacked her without having been invited by 
some mental excitement. But these mental causes or 
occasions were often so insignificant that she took no no- 



CRAMP. 51 

tice of them at the time. And she was the more likely 
to overlook them, as the attacks usually did not come 
on until hours, half a day or a whole day later. If 
the mental excitement was great, such as a great fright, 
the cramp came on immediately ; but weak moral sen- 
sations left impressions on the mind which, separate or 
acting together, were the causes of later cramps. The 
first sign of approaching \latitirender'] cramps was 
always an irresistible stretching in all her limbs. 
This stretching is in itself a kind of antecedent weak 
cramp ; for whenever I made some dispersive passes, 
over her, the stretching ceased and general rest began. 
Hiccoughs were also a sign that she would have the 
cramp, and were frequently its forerunners. Indeed they 
are a kind of cramp, and I cured them by dispersive 
passes, by placing the points of my fingers on the pit 
of the stomach, or most certainly by a glass of water 
charged witli od, when uncliarged water would have no 
efi*ect. If, however, the hiccoughs were not arrested, a 
peculiar yawning soon set in, and this too was a species 
of cramp. Up to this time, I remained master of the 
cramps, and could cure them at will by dispersive 
methods ; but if the disease was neglected in this stage, 
a sensation of creeping in the stomach followed, the 
stomach swelled, palpitation of the heart set in, there 
were internal twitchings in all directions, and then 
the sufi*erer was certain of the near approach of spasms, 
which soon seized, and raged through, her bowels, 
breast, neck and back, arms and legs. 

These examples show that soretic influences may 
induce a condition in which cramps are latent. These 
cramps, and the power which sets them a going, are 
stored away somewhere in tlic body, probably in the 



52 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

brain, and afterwards, when circumstances are favor- 
able, they break out in violent activity. 

§ 42. By obstructions to the flow of od. — Obstruc- 
tions are the most powerful causes of cramp. Among 
the most singular of these phenomena are the facts, that 
little pieces of wood, crystal, metal, or even of paper 
laid on the finger-points of highly sensitive persons, 
cause cramp. I have had examples of this in Mrs. 
Preinreich, Misses Fleischer, Beyer, Zinkel and many 
others. There are also practical cases, worthy of no- 
tice ; no moderate sensitive can wear a thimble. And 
this is true not only of metal thimbles, which are dis- 
agreeable because of the od-positive character, but of 
all kinds, because they obstruct the flow of od from the 
finger. Leather gloves are also uncomfortable to sen- 
sitives ; but silk gloves, with thin meshes, are less dis- 
agreeable. Leather shoes cause the same sensations 
as leather gloves. High sensitives long to put off their 
leather shoes, and put on cloth slippers, that permit 
the circulation of air. When unusually excitable Miss 
Zinkel was not able to put on laced boots, which were 
not unpleasant to her on ordinary occasions. But in 
her more sensitive periods they caused cramp, which 
began in the smaller toes and extended thence to the 
whole foot. Then she had to hurry to take them off ; 
and soon after that the cramps ceased. These pheno- 
mena are the pure effects of obstructions, where the 
odic emanations from the fingers and toes are more or 
less intercepted. For this reason, sandals are much 
better than shoes for sensitive persons. 

These experiments and experiences were highly in- 
structive to me. They showed, in the plainest manner, 



CRAilP. 53 

how cramps arise, as tlie immediate result of od-accu- 
mulative influences ; they give the key to a multitude 
of phenomena, extending throughout the domain of 
somnambulism and sensitiveness ; explain a great 
number of facts hitherto unexplained, and give rational 
means of avoiding and preventing evils, the remedies 
for which have been heretofore hidden in uncertainty 
and darkness. 

§ 43. By like odic pairings.— A not unimportant 
example of the principles just brought to light appears 
in a process of daily occurence— the approach of the 
physician to the sick-bed, and the feeling of the pulse. 
It appears at first sight, absurd to assert that the pa- 
tient can care which side of the physician is nearer to 
him, or whether he feels his pulse with the right or 
left hand. And yet Misses Maix, Sturmann, Atzmanns- 
dorfer and others, have repeatedly assured me that the 
feeling of their pulse was particularly painful to them. 
If I, without forethought, sought to feel Miss Zinkel's 
pulse in her right wrist with my like hand, she imme- 
diately jerked loose from me ; and it was the same if 
I sought to feel the left pulse with my left fingers. A 
like pulse-feeling on Miss Sturmann's left wrist caused 
cramp in her whole arm. I have witnessed a multitude 
of cases of the same kind, but have not noted them 
down. The cause is plain. When the pulse of the 
sensitive was felt with like fingers, a current of od be- 
gan to run up to her brain and soon overjjowcrcd her. 
• But unlike pulse-feeling was at first cooling and agree- 
able. In the former case, where the wrist and fingers 
were alike, tlio natural effect upon a high sensitive 
would be crnmp ; and tins effect I observed several 



54 SOMXAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

times in Miss Beyer. At her most excitable times she 
would fall into cramp after her hand had been held in 
another's like hand for only a quarter of a minute. 
The approach of the physician to the sick bed has the 
same influence and, when the patient is very low, be- 
comes a matter of importance. If he presents his un- 
like side to the patient, there is no danger ; but if he 
offers a like side, his left for instance to the patient's 
left, and feels the left pulse with his left fingers, he 
need not be astonished if the sick man soon becomes 
red in the face, and restless, or has a fit of cramp or 
opisthotonus. The physician should never approach 
with a like side to the sick-bed, and if he does not 
know this his presence will call forth diseases, of which 
he is himself the cause. It is clear from these subor- 
dinate facts how important a thorough knowledge 
of the odic phenomena and sensitiveness is to every 
physician — phenomena which, nevertheless, highly 
scientific men of the present day, declare to belong 
among the fables. The only fable-like fact in the af- 
fair is their own ignorance. 

§ 44. By all od-positive soretic influences. — If we 

glance over the cited cases of the origin of cramps, we 
discover a certain general characteristic. The seat 
with the back to the west is nothing else than a so- 
retic reaction of the od-negative southward pole of the 
earth upon our right side, and of the positive north- 
ward pole upon our like left ; and this influence is 
precisely similar to that of like poles of magnets upon 
our sides, whether the magnets be merely pointed at 
us or used in making passes over us. Crystals used 
in the same way, immediately or througli conductors, 



CRAMP. 55 

have similar accumulatiye effects. So also od-positive, 
amorphous bodies, taken in the left hand, have a pure- 
ly accumulative influence. The influences of men, 
when lying near each other with like sides ; or with 
unlike sides for a longer period ; or when making up- 
ward passes over the body, or over separate limbs, all 
have the accumulative character. Finally the experi- 
ments with Miss Zinkel show in the plainest manner 
how downward and upward passes, both lead imme- 
diately to cramp, where they have the effect of accu- 
mulation, but prevent or drive away cramp whenever 
they have the dispersive influence. We thus arrive at 
the conclusion that while upward passes never induce 
somnambulism, soretic influences always induce cramps 
particularly through the means of like and od-positive 



§ 45. Cramps cured by nemetic od-negative ioflu- 

ences* — If now the question be asked how the cramps 
caused by soretic influences may be removed, the reply 
is indicated in the experiments made with part-passes, 
upon Miss Zinkel, as before mentioned; and that reply 
is, " with downward passes over the cramped limbs." 
Wherever soretic influences have been at work, whether 
in driving the odic fluid from the outside of the body 
to the nervous centres, or from the nervous centres to 
the extremities, thus causing cramps, those cramps may 
be cured by a few downward passes. I have frequently 
cured cramps permanently in less than a minute ]jy un- 
like downward passes over Misses Natlicr, Weigand, 
Krueger, Kynast, Reichel, Nowotny, Won tor, Stur- 
mann, Rupp, Girtler, Beyer, Martha Leopolder, Wei- 
gelsberg, Atzmaunsdorfer, Blahusch, Mrs. Lederer, Kie- 



56 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

nesberger, Anschuetz, and many others. I have wrought 
such cures on Miss Zinkel frequently of late. When 
she has fallen into tetanic cramps with or without som- 
nambulism, I have invariably relieved her by some ne- 
metic passes over her breast, fore-arms and hands, feet 
and toes ; when I took her unlike hands in mine and 
placed the ends of my fingers as near as possible to 
hers, or placed my unlike fingers on her toes, the 
cramps would frequently go in less than a minute. 
Sometimes, and the fact is remarkable enough, I suc- 
ceeded when I came early enough in arresting and 
preventing the cramps by merely placing the points of 
my fingers on hers, and bringing my toes, though cov- 
ered with boots, as near as possible to hers. There 
were cramps which attacked her every day and ex- 
tended over her arms, legs, breast and neck, and were 
accompanied by opisthotonus. The struggle of the so- 
retic cramp-attack against the nemetic influence from 
the extremities was shown by a multitude of signs. 
The cramps disappeared in twitchings of the muscles 
of the back, of the Rectus Abdominis and the Biceps. 
On one occasion when I sought to prevent the ap- 
proaching cramps on Miss Zinkel, besides placing my 
fingers upon hers, I breathed upon the pit of her stom- 
ach. This breathing had a strongly dispersive influ- 
ence, and caused a piercing cold and negative sensa- 
tion. By this means I was still more emphatically and 
speedily master of the cramp, which was so subjected, 
that Miss Zinkel passed an easy and cramp-free night. 
I am convinced that if intelligent aid were at hand in 
time, most cramps, particularly those of the hysterical 
kind might be mastered and cured. In the cases cited, 
the sufferers had a sensation as though a fluid was 



CRAMP. 57 

passing from their head doTvnTvard through the breast, 
back, arms and feet, and when I placed my fingers and 
toes against theirs they felt as if the downflowing cur- 
rent were arrested in its course and turned backwards. 
These may all have heen mere secondary sensations to 
which no value is to be attached ; but I mention them 
here for the completeness of the view of the interesting 
facts, where the most violent cramps are conquered 
when in the full force of their approach by purely odic 
means, applied in the nemetic way. 

§ 46. Somnambulism and cramps, opposite odic con- 
ditions of the nervous system. — Then we have a result 
precisely opposite to that arrived at in regard to the 
origin of cramps, namely : that cramps are arrested 
and cured by nemetic influences working upon the 
limbs attacked. 

Uniting the two results that accumulative treatment 
of the limbs causes cramp, and nemetic treatment cures 
it, and we arrive at the second main principle that 
cramps are, in their general character, od-positive con- 
ditions of the nervous system. 

We have already seen that somnambulism is caused 
by nemetic treatment, is destroyed by soretic and there- 
fore is to be considered as a want^of odic fluid, an 
od-negative state of the nervous structure. 

And on the other hand, we find that cramps are 
caused by soretic, and are cured by nemetic treatment, 
and therefore arc to be considered as od-overchargcd 
conditions of portions of the nerves, which are in an 
od-poriitiv<' state. 

And thus after carefully distinguishing the various 
natural phenomena in this tangled field, wo arrive at 

3* 



58 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

the clear recognition of tlie conclusion that somnam- 
hulism and cramp are two opposite odic conditions of 
the nervous system ; the condition being negative in som- 
nambulism, and positive in cramp. 



SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP IN CONJUNCTION. 59 



CHAPTER Y. 

SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP IN CONJUNCTION. 

§ 47. The two occurring together iu the human body. 

— If somnambulism and cramp are two opposite od- 
polar conditions, each being caused by such passes as 
cure the others, it would be but reasonable to sup- 
pose that if they were to meet in the same body they 
would mutually destroy each other. Yet, in fact, 
we see that this is not the case, but that they often 
exist together, and that sensitives are frequently affect- 
ed by both at once. In such cases, they are mingled 
together in the most confused manner. And precisely 
in these facts may be found one of the causes why their 
mutual relationship has heretofore been so inexplicable 
to pathologists. 

To avoid being lost in the labyrinth which has been 
building since the time of Puysegur, we must hold 
fast to the guiding line offered in the fact that od may 
exist in both conditions, negative and positive, in one 
body at the same time, and that both conditions may 
exercise an influence outwards. A bit of wood wliich 
I whirled round between the fingers of both hands and 
thus charged at the same time with positive and nega- 
tive od, and then placed in Miss Zinkel's hands, caused 
her to feel two sensations, one lukewarm, the other 



60 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

cool. If I^placed the ten fingers of both my hands at 
the end of a stick of wood or glass, a sensitive person 
could feel at the other end the currents of warm and 
cool od. This peculiarity of the od, may also be 
traced in the light phenomena, where the blue flames 
of the right fingers, and the red flames of the 
left fingers, were both purple when the current of 
one hand was discharged upon the other. When I 
grasped one end of a glass rod in both hands, it emit- 
ted a blue-red flame from its other end. Similar phe- 
nomena were noted with magnets and crystals. Enough, 
I have observed a vast number of facts, showing that 
when the odic currents of opposite poles flow together, 
they do not destroy each other, as do positive and 
negative electricity, or bind each other fast as magne- 
tism does, or neutralize each other as affinity does, 
but that the two forms of od may exist near each 
other and with each other for a time of unknown dura- 
tion, and that each may, in the mean time, exercise its 
peculiar influences. 

This is the Ariadne's thread which must lead us 
through the tangled passages of the labyrinth of som- 
nambulism and cramp. If the plus and minus od may 
exist together for a measurable length of time, without 
neutralizing each other, in inorganic bodies, they must 
be found in still more intricate relations in organic 
living beings, where there are so many diff'erent mate- 
rials to fasten upon. It is now my task to produce 
facts showing that such intricate relations of the two 
odic conditions really do exist in animate bodies. 

It is not an uncommon occurrence, known to nearly 
every physician, that the usual cramps of highly sen- 
sitive persons are, as a genei-al rule, accompanied by 



SOMNAMBULISM AXD CRAMP IX CONJUNCTION, 61 

somnambulic sleep. This was the case, innumerable 
times, with Misses Xowotny, Reichel, Atzmannsdorfer, 
Krueger, Beyer, Kynast, Winter, Zinkel, Sturmann, 
Krebs, Dorfer, Mrs. Kienesberger, Mr. Weidlich and 
many others. Most of the ordinary cramps took place 
with simultaneous somnambulism, the exciting causes 
of which were known in only a few cases. But these 
causes were often clearly discoverable in cases brought 
on by artificial means. 

§ 48. Both caused by touch. — It happened that once 
I placed the point of my forefinger exactly on the 
vertex of Miss Atzmannsdorfer 's head ; and immedia- 
tely she lost her consciousness and fell over in som- 
nambulism, and in less than a minute clonic arm-cramps 
began. At that focus all the recurrent sub-cutaneous 
nerves of the head meet ; those on the left being od- 
positive, and tliose on the right od-negative. My 
strongly od-negative right forefinger took possession 
at once in so sensitive a person, of the left nerves 
nemetically, and of the right soretically, the former 
influence made her a somnambulist ; the latter threw 
her into cramp : and at the end of half an hour both 
influences had exhausted themselves, and she was again 
in her normal condition, and at ease. On anotlier oc- 
casion, I placed both my forefingers on her head in the 
same place. Tiie cff'ect was so severe that she at onco 
cried out, fell into somnambulism, and at the same time 
had a violent attack of cramp, whicli lasted for half an 
hour. The cause was the same as in the first case, but 
stronger on account of the application of botli fingers, 
which operating alternately and in opposite dire(!tions 
upon the cutaneous nerves of the head, caused soin 



62 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

nambulism and cramp. In this case, currents of posi- 
tive and negative-od were, at the same time, thrown 
upon each class of nerves, and yet they did not neutra- 
lize each other, but the sensitive was mastered by their 
four-fold influences, all in operation at the same time. 
I witnessed similar cases in Misses Maix, Eeichel and 
Sturmann. 

§ 49. By passes* — Professor Lippich induced a si- 
milar case, but in a reverse direction : — that is, from 
the feet upwards. He visited Miss Atzmannsdorfer, 
then lying ill in my house, treated her with magnetic 
passes, which were very agreeable and beneficial to 
her. He ended these passes by placing his right hand 
under the soles of her feet, so that two fingers rested 
upon the left foot and three upon the right, and he 
held his hand in this position for some time. The 
passes threw her into somnambulism ; but the holding 
of his right fingers under her soles brought on cramps. 
The skillful physician told me that these were nemetic 
cramps, which brought the disease from the head to 
the extremities — so far was he from a proper under- 
standing of the effect of his own operations ! His 
influence on the left positive foot was nemetic and 
cooling for one minute ; but he maintained the position 
too long ; an overcharge resulted ; and the effect then 
became soretic. His influence upon the right foot was 
still worse ; his negative fingers were strongly soretic 
upon the negative foot. The consequence was, that 
the patient's wholesome sleep was broken by violent 
cramps, and then he justified himself, after therapeu- 
tical fashion, by a combination of words without mean- 
ing. In this example I could follow the precise coui'so 



SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP IN CONJUNCTION. 63 

of the nemetic and soretic influences step by step, as 
they developed themselves in the bo^y of the sensi- 
tive. 

If Miss Beyer was suffering under very painful head- 
ache, threatening to go over into cramp every minute, 
and I made two or three unlike passes over her toes, 
the pain ceased ; but at the same time she fell into 
somnambulism. When Miss Zinkel was attacked with 
cramp, no other remedy was necessary than that I 
should place the points of my unlike fingers or toes 
against her's. The cramp ceased, and the young lady 
became somnambule and slept for quarter of an hour 
in quiet. 

If I placed the finger-points of both my unlike hands 
on the two sides of the solar plextis, she soon became 
somnambulic, and began to talk. If I crossed my 
hands and moved them over the stomach on like sides, 
she soon fell into cramps, which disappeared with the 
somnambulism. 

Whenever this young lady attempted to wash any 
linen, and rubbed up and down with the right arm 
crossed over the left, she always felt great inconven- 
ience, and soon had to quit her work, or submit to 
attacks of somnambulism and cramp. The cause of 
these attacks lay in the numerous upward and down- 
ward passes which she made over her own arms, work- 
ing soretically, nemetically and dispersivcly upon her- 
self at the same time, and thus induce both somnam- 
bulism and cramp. Miss Zinkel had frequent attacks 
of stomach-aclies in tlie dark chamber and elscwliore. 
In tliese cases I would give her tliree or four passes 
over the body and down past tlie feet, and the sickness 
was removed. While 1 was making the passes, she 



64 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

already began to feel drowsy, and as soon as the cramp 
was cured she found great difficulty in remaining 
awake. This sleepiness was the effect of my nemetic 
treatment, and it commenced before cramp, brought 
on by other influences, had ceased. I once made a 
couple of passes with the negative pole of a gypsum 
crystal held in my right hand held over the right 
hand of Lady Elise von S^ckendorf at Carlsbad in the 
presence of Berzelius, and the consequence was that 
she became somnambulic at once, and her arm was 
stiffened with a cramp. So ignorant were we at that 
time, the great natural philosopher and my insignifi- 
cance, that we both supposed the phenomenon to be a 
trick, and with the most beautiful experiment in our 
hands, we would investigate the subject no further ! 
Years passed by before I discovered the whole extent 
of my error, and Berzelius died without having ob- 
tained the explanation. The strongly negative in- 
fluence upon the negative hand of the highly sensitive 
lady was instantaneously soretic, and before I could 
move my hand, cramp ensued. The pass, however, ren- 
dered this more mild, and she went over into somnam- 
bulism. Both conditions passed away within half an 
hour and the lady was again wide awake. Thus things 
have gone on ever since there have been somnambulists 
in the world ; the clearest thinkers have misunderstood 
tlie entangled phenomena and were even ready to 
denounce them as tricks. It was the same with myself 
and my numberless enemies will long continue the 
same course. I afterwards made the same experiment 
with the same crystal upon Miss Weigaud, and saw 
the same phenomena again developed. 



BOMXAMBULISM AXD CRAMP IN CONJUXCTIOX. 65 

§ 50. By magnets. — I have seldom seen passes 
made with the poles of a horse-shoe magnet over high 
sensitives without their being attacked at the same 
time bv somnambulism and cramps. Both came upon 
Miss Sturmann after one such pass had been made over 
her. Misses Nather and Reichel, Frederick Weidlich, 
Alois Bayer, and many others were afraid of the mag- 
net and would have nothing to do with it, because they 
had learned its good and evil effects from a long expe- 
rience. A few passes with such a magnet made across 
a room at Miss Atzmannsdorfer caused watering of the 
eyes and yawning, as forerunners of cramp and som- 
nambulism. There is no worse instrument for mag- 
netizing than a horse-shoe magnet in the hands of 
ignorant persons, and nearly all who use it are igno- 
rant, for no one considers that the opposite poles have 
opposite influences, and that the human body has its 
opposite poles which are differently affected by the 
same powers. I have always seen the magnet used 
without any regard to the distinct natures of the two 
poles, one of which causes effects directly the reverse 
of those produced by the other. The consequences of 
simultaneous soretic and nemetic influences are som- 
nambulism and cramps existing together. The metal 
as distinct from the magnet, is strongly od-positive and 
works soretically on the positive pole of the body, and 
tlie hand which holds the magnet adds its influence 
which pours throuirli the metal. Thus tlie horse-shoe 
is a com])ination of all possible od-iufluencos, wliich 
might l»e expected to produce the confused cflVM-t ob- 
served to follow its use. And therefore all higli-sen- 
sitives abhor it. and with abundant rciison. 



66 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP 

§ 51. By green light. — All highly sensitive persons 
find the influence of the green rays of the spectrum 
disagreeable, avoid them, and suffer when subjected to 
them. Miss Krueger repeatedly fell into somnambu- 
lism and cramps when she allowed the green rays of 
the moon-spectrum to fall upon her forefinger. I shall 
find fault with no one who may laugh at this assertion, 
and imagine that the affection was merely imaginary ; 
for so long as I did not understand the matter I treat- 
ed it in the same way. But now I understand the con- 
nection of cause and effect in these phenomena. Green 
is not a simple color ; it is not even a compound but 
only a mixed light. If we mingle fine yellow powder 
and fine blue powder together, the result will be a 
powder which appears green ; but there is nothing 
green there. The whole mass remains a mixture of 
fine blue and yellow particles. The red and yellow 
rays in the spectrum are od-positive, and the blue, ne- 
gative ; and they effect sensitives accordingly. If blue 
is cool to the left finger, and yellow lukewarm ; then 
a mixture of blue and yellow should exercise nemetic 
and soretic influences at the same time ; and if the per- 
son experimented upon the highly sensitive, the result 
should be somnambulism and cramp at the same time. 
Such are precisely the effects of the green rays upon 
the sensitive organization, as I had repeated opportun- 
ities for observing in Miss Krueger. It is scarcely 
possible to desire a pure, more conclusive, or more 
beautiful example of instantaneous production of these 
two opposing states of the nervous system. 

Mrs. Kienesberger was afiected so much by a crowd 
of persons near her, that on returning from a ball or 
theatre, she has often fallen into somnambulism or 



SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP I2s^ CONJUNCTION. 07 

cramp, just as happened to Miss Atzmannsdorfer when 
surrounded by students at the Clinical Institute. 

It has repeatedly occurred that after I had made a 
variety of odic experiments on highly sensitive persons, 
they have had attacks of somnambulism and cramp an 
hour or two later. Of this I had examples in Mrs. Jo- 
anna Anschuetz, Mrs. Kowats, Misses Beyer, Martha 
Leopolder, and many others. These results were more 
likely to occur if I followed up a particular experiment; 
that, namely, of trying the range of the influence of my 
double passes. The sensitive subject was then usually 
placed three or four rooms distant from where I was, 
and I made passes at various distances till my influence 
could no longer be felt. Thus I learned the range of 
my passes and the degree of the subject's sensitiveness. 
In these experiments my influence, though weak, was 
necessarily both soretic and nemetic ; and it sufficed 
to throw high sensitives into somnambulism and cramps. 
Mrs. Kowats felt this effect so plainly that no pleading 
could induce her to take part in any more odic expe- 
riments. 

These examples suffice to establish the fact that som- 
namhulisra and cramps may, and often do, exist together- 
in the human body; and that such states ofjoint-occuioa- 
ticm occur when soretic and nemetic influences of sufficient 
strength are exercised at the same time. 



SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 



CHAPTER YI. 

THE MUTUAL RELATIONS OF SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

§ 52. Their influence on each other. — Sensitive per- 
sons who are subject to somnambulism, are rarely at- 
tacked by cramps alone. The cramp is usually accom- 
panied or followed by somnambulic sleep. When a 
severe cramp was about to attack Miss Reichel she, as 
a general rule, fell sometime previously into somnam- 
bulism, remained in that state as long as the cramps 
lasted, and for several hours afterwards. Before the 
attack came on she was low-spirited and weak ; after 
it had passed, she was lively and good humored while 
in somnambulism, as though she had been refreshed. 
The cramp had evidently relieved her from a pain, from 
an oppressive feeling which had weighed upon her. 
Misses Atzmannsdorfer, Grirtler, Weigand and Krueger, 
when I observed them, always became somnambulic 
before falling into cramps, and remained in that con- 
dition for sometime after the spasms had passed. Mrs. 
Kienesberger frequently slept ten or twelve hours 
quietly but talkative, after her attacks of cramp. Fred- 
erick Weidlich remains somnambulic for seven days 
after an attack of cramp. Mrs. Krebs, while somnam- 
bulic for weeks together at a time, had tonic cramps 
in her arms and legs, every morning for about an hour 



MUTUAL RELATIONS OF SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 69 

beginning at ten o'clock. The numerous cramps of 
Miss Beyer always ended in somnambulism, so far as 
my observation went. Miss Zinkel, who has become 
a somnambulist only of late, often told me that when 
cramps of the stomach, caused by handling metallic 
substances or by sitting for a long time with her back 
to the west, had left her, they were succeeded by a 
coolness that changed to a peculiar drowsiness. This 
last sensation was very strong, and if she submitted to 
it, she fell asleep and slept for an hour, at the end of 
which time, warmth began, then a light sweat came on 
and with this she awoke. All these phenomena are of 
a purely somnambulic character. Of late Miss Zinkel 
has suffered much from illness, and her sensitiveness 
has become much more acut^. She has often fallen into 
somnambulism and the most violent cramps at the same 
time. If she became somnambulic, the cramps began 
half an hour afterwards, then ceased, after an hour or 
half an hour again came on, and again ceased ; the 
Bleep being unbroken. Thus whole nights were passed 
in constant change. In most cases, the cramp began 
in the bowels, and passed as rigid spasms into the 
limbs, and then changed to somnambulism, or the two 
states began at the same time. However, there were 
cases wherein mild cramps came on alone, and passed 
off without the appearance of somnambulism; but these 
cases were comparatively few. 

The causes of this kind of reflex-movement may be 
different in the various cases ; but it is certain that 
they usually lie in theodic dualism of the human body 
and in its tlircefold odic axes. The influence which is 
sorctic upon one pole is ncmetic upon another, and 
thus may induce cramp and somnambulism at the same 



70 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

time. Great caution is necessary in forming an opin- 
ion upon particular cases to take into account all the 
various influences and to give to each one of them its 
proper importance. It is possible and not improbable 
that the exertion of an influence upon one pole itself 
creates a counterbalancing action at the opposite pole, 
as has been observed in magnetism and electricity ; 
but I have made no satisfactory observations on this 
point, and therefore content myself with merely sug- 
gesting it as a matter not to be overlooked. 



§ 53. Cramps caused by slight soretic influences.— 

High sensitives may be thrown into cramp by causes 
so slight, that physicians cannot be too careful. There 
is a great difference in the odic influences of the 
methods in which the hands may be grasped, of the 
modes in which passes may be made over the various 
limbs ; and variations which are scarcely perceptible 
and which are not thought of, may produce very dissi- 
milar effects on sensitives. For instance, when I gave 
my hand in the most favorable position to Misses 
Beyer and Zinkel, that is my right in their left, finger 
on finger, and inside to inside, crossing downwards, I 
supposed that all must be well, and that all the condi- 
tions necessary for a comfortable position were observ- 
ed. But there was something wrong. If the points 
of the sensitive's fingers extended beyond mine, even 
for the length of but half the last joint, though the 
whole hand felt the nemetic influence, yet the little pro- 
jecting finger points were affected soretically ; they 
became warm and felt uncomfortable, and if the sensi- 
tive was unusually sensitive, my continuing to hold the 



MUTUAL RELATIOXS OF SOMXAMBULISM AXD CRAMP. 71 

hand was followed by cramps which commenced in the 
fingers and afterwards extended to the hand and arm. 

§ 54. By surcharge of oil.— Here we must turn to 
the phenomenon of the surcharge of od. When by 
passes I cured Miss Zinkel of cramps of the stomach 
and breast, or Miss Atzmannsdorfer of breast and neck 
cramps, or Miss Beyer of arm-cramps or opisthotonus, 
or when I threw Miss Beyer and Miss Reichel into a 
deeper sleep, a certain number of passes cured the ill- 
ness, and then the sensitive bade me stop. If I made 
more passes I again brought on the evil which had 
been driven away by previous passes, and it became 
worse than before, for now further passes would not 
cure it but only make it more acute. When Miss 
Zinkel was lately attacked by a disease of the abdomen 
and suffered much by various cramps, she would often 
grasp my hands and set the points of her fingers against 
the points of mine, but she would endure this position 
only half a minute, and then let me go. Sometimes 
she would request me to take hold of her toes with 
my unlike hand, and then a minute after I had done so 
she would draw her feet back. The first influence was 
highly agreeable, refreshing, cramp-curing, and causing 
cold sensations reaching up through the whole arm or 
foot. This coolness rapidly disappeared, and at the 
end of a minute it was entirely gone, and a state of 
nervous indifference had taken its place. If she did 
not then immediately draw back from touching mo, or 
if I did not take away my hand from her breast, pit 
of the stomach or neck, an overcharge immediately 
followed ; warmth succeeded the coolness and increased 
80 rapidly that in nnothrr minute the cramps came on 



72 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

again. Breathing and blowing upon Miss Zinkel had 
the same effect. While she had cramps of the breast, 
she felt the greatest relief from my breathing, but this 
durst not last more than a quarter of a minute ; so far 
it was exceeding refreshing, very cool and cramp-heal- 
ing, and all rigidity loosed itself at once ; but now it 
was necessary that I should stop, otherwise warmth 
would follow the coolness, an oppressive feeling came 
over the brain and the cramps broke out again more 
severely than before, having been called back by im- 
proper treatment. To understand all these relations 
accurately is clearly a matter of the first importance 
to therapeutics. 

§ 55. By part-passes. — I witnessed similar results 
with Misses Beyer, Zinkel and other when I made 
passes over their arms and legs during cramp and care- 
lessly stopped the passes at the wrists or ankles in the 
haste to make new passes. The scarcely subdued 
cramps broke out again immediately, without my being 
able to comprehend the cause. This was the influence 
of " part-passes," which I did not learn to understand 
until later. The incomplete passes exercised a soretic 
influence on the extremities of the limbs, and this reac- 
tionary influence increased with every pass, until it 
became as strong as the nemetic influence higher up, 
and then threatened to weigh it down. 

Another striking example is the following : While 
Miss Zinkel allowed her hands to hang down, I placed 
my unlike finger points against hcr's, touching them. 
At first the influence was cool and pleasant on both 
hands : afterwards this sensation disappeared and ner- 
vous indifference set in. Still later, hikewarmness, 



JIUTUAL RELATIONS OF SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 73 

discomfort, a worm-like creeping sensation followed ; 
then pains in the stomach, threatening to change into 
cramp, and I abandoned the experiment. For the 
correctness of these observations, I found a counter- 
proof with odic light. I placed my right hand in 
Miss Zinkel's left, in the dark chamber. Both imme- 
diately became more luminous than before, and the 
sensation was agreeable. But the light soon grew 
dull, and, in half a minute, both hands became invis- 
ible ; the coolness disappeared, and disagreeable luke- 
warmness succeeded. If the hand-grasp continued, 
her hand felt the worm-like creeping, and pains of the 
stomach and incipient cramp followed. In all these 
cases there was an overcliarge, or, rather, there was au 
opposite mischarge, whereby positive od was laden 
upon the negative fingers and negative od on the po- 
sitive fingers, thus creating an artificial likeness of 
odic polarity in the opposite liml)s, and inducing sec- 
ondary soretic reactions with incii)ient cramps. 

While Miss Beyer was in lier most impressible con- 
dition, in my house, it often happened that when I 
gave her a good nemetic pass doAvn over either tlie 
right or left arm, she felt an agreeably cool sensation, 
and yet the arm became cramped. For a long time I 
could not understand this. At last, when I liad inves- 
tigated tlie part passes and learned to know their mean- 
ing, the matter was clear to me, and I could divide 
the plienomena into their elements. I had never made 
the pass witli pcchintic exactness out beyond the outer- 
most |>oints of the fingers, but I had only gone to the 
hand, or j)artly over it. When we examine the in- 
Ihieiire of the part-passes, wc sec that, as nearly all the 
mesmeric physicians do, I created an agi'eeal)le noino- 

1 



74 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

tic influence over the whole arm, but charged the hand 
and fingers soretically by allowing my pass to stop 
when it reached them. My operation was therefore 
incomplete and partial, and while I supposed that I 
was bringing the greatest quiet over the sensitive per- 
son, I heaped upon the hands the material that would 
excite cramps, which would then break out, to my 
great astonishment, and take possession of the whole 
arm. It happened to me in the same manner with 
part-passes over the thighs and feet and brought me to 
start back in fear from my own defective art. When 
in later experiments, I carefully lead the passes out 
beyond the points of the fingers and toes, the cramp 
ceased to appear in this manner. 

§ 56. By passes over the recurrent nerves. — A fourth 
noteworthy case of this kind happened with Miss Beyer. 
One day I made downward passes over her arm; some- 
times she felt them agreeable and cool, and afterwards 
disagreeable, and finally she felt cramp in her arm. 
On a close investigation, it appeared that the passes 
were always agreeable and of a nemetic character, when 
I led them down over the large nervous trunk on the 
inner arm. When I deviated from that the influence 
was disagreeable in places. When I closely examined 
these places and the formation of the nerves in them, 
I found that invariably there were recurrent subcuta- 
neous nerves there in unusual strength and with numer- 
ous branches. This was particularly the case upon 
the back of the arm, especially of the upper arm. And 
if I continued to make passes over her, the girl fell 
into somnambulism, with tetanus in the arms. Thus it 
appears that apparently reguUir downward passes over 



MUTUAL EELATIOXS OF SOMNAMBULISM AXD CRAMP. 75 

the arm, in unlike pairing, may throw a sick person into 
cramp, if the pass does not carefully turn out of the 
way of the subcutaneous recurrent nerves, with a more 
exact knowledge of their position than is to be found 
now in our elementary books. 

§ 57. By slow passes* — It even happened when my 
passes were too swift or too slow, that Miss Beyer was 
thrown into cramp. The slow passes had this effect, 
because the}^ delayed too long before arriving at the 
finger points, and exercised a soretic influence on the 
hand and lower part of the arm, before the nemetic in- 
fluence was felt there. 

All these thousand-fold complex fine relations must 
be accurately known and considered, if the application 
of the odic force to therapeutic purposes is not to lead 
every moment to the greatest mistakes, and the produc- 
tion of effects precisely contrary to those intended. 
But where is such knowledge to be found now in the 
present state of magnetic therapeutics? And could 
any one have such knowledge, since these relations 
were completely concealed until the present time ? And 
what right has any one to take offence when, in my 
Odic- Letters, I styled the present conduct of physicians 
a "blind groping"? xVnd is not the correctness of my 
statement vindicated that the results of magnetic cures 
rest upon the most unsteady and insecure foundation — 
and, in fact, on no scientific bane at all ? 

§ 58. Soundness of somnambulic sleep.— Somnam- 
bulic sleep is, in itself, when undistiirl»ed by soretic in- 
fluence, as quiet as any other sleep. Misses Atzmanns- 
dorfor, Kynast, lleiclicl, Beyer, Nathcr, Dorfer, Krue- 



76 SOMNAMBULISM AXD CRAMP. 

ger, Zinkel, Mrs. Kienesberger and Frederick Weidlich 
slept quietly in my house, some of them for long pe- 
riods, and never was there any sleep-walking unless 
there were peculiar irritations. Such irritations, how- 
ever, are numerous, internal and external. They always 
operate soretically, some of them od-negatively, others 
od-positively. 

Somnambulic sleep is usually pleasant and refreshing 
like other sound sleep. When the sleepers are spoken 
to, they reply cheerfully, in a friendly, happy mood 
which is apt to change to the playful and jokose. Miss 
Atzmannsdorfer was always much more cheerful and 
friendly in somnambulism than when awake. Miss 
Reichel, usually grave when awake, was always fond 
of fun in somnambulism. I never saw Mrs. Lederer 
otherwise than very serious or sad when awake ; but, 
as soon as the magic stroke has passed over her and 
thrown her into sleep, she was freed from all her cares; 
the burdens and bonds of life were cast off and she was 
a changed person, lively, romping, laughing and full of 
play. When her physician awakened her, the sadness 
caused by her condition in life, returned. Misses Atz- 
mannsdorfer and Amelia Krueger while in somnambu- 
lism described their condition to me minutely ; they 
often said that the moment when their sleep \)egan they 
felt sensations in their brains as if they were made 
lighter, and as a consequence of this, their mood became 
more cheerful, yes even such bodily pains, as they might 
have, were either much relieved or driven entirely 
away. Miss Krueger described the condition of ordi- 
nary dreaming as very different from that of somnam- 
bulic dream ; the former she said was filled with 
worldly griefs and cares and was often more painful 



MUTUAL RELATIONS OF SOMXA:m:BULISM AND CRAMP, i i 

for poor people tlian real life ; somnambulism was a 
care-free, happy state, where every thing appeared in 
rose-colored light ; all sorrows, all injustice suffered, 
and other cares were there taken very lightly, and if 
she happened to remember anything, the thought of 
-which could pain her, she passed laughingly over it, 
always turning towards cheerfulness and jollity. These 
are her own words, as she spoke them to me while in 
the somnambulic sleep which she was describing. It 
is well known that the somnambulists often sing and 
that they give themselves up to amusing remarks, if 
they are not disturbed. I found, however, that this 
condition of good humor is different from sound, good 
sleep, only in degree. I know from much experience, 
that I myself, far removed from all somnambulism, when 
in deep sleep see everything in rose-colored light, am 
friendly towards my bitterest enemies, and have the 
kindest feelings towards them. These good humored 
moods must therefore belong to sound sleep of which 
somnambulism is only an exaltation. 

§ 59. Somnambulism under active odic influences. — 

The course of somnambulism is different however wlien 
it is influenced by od. It gains depth and stuength, 
and therefore comfort, when it is supported and assist- 
ed by nemetic treatment. Many ill sensitives were 
unable to sleep unless they were aided by downward 
passes. Miss Sturmann has to be served every evening 
at nine or ten o'clock with some passes by her physi- 
cian, Professor Lippich, at a distance of arm's length, 
before she can go to slec}). 1 liave often Ijcen present 
on these occasions, and saw how lively she was as 
thou'^h slie did not think of slooi) : Itut aft(*r tlie riglit 



Y8 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

hand of her physician had made three or four passes 
oyer her, she was fast asleep in somnambulism. In- 
numerable times by one or two passes I threw Miss 
Atzmannsdorfer into sleep in the evening, and she sank 
in somnambulism upon her couch; and I might say the 
same of Mrs. Krebs, Miss Girtler and Catharine Rupp. 
Miss Nowotny was always made to sleep by passes 
with magnets, and she learned the use of those instru- 
ments so well that she used to go to sleep by making 
passes over herself with them. 

§ 60. Change from waking to somnambulism. — The 

change from the waking condition to somnambulic 
sleep was never a long and gradual one, but a sudden 
leap, in an immeasurably brief time. I have often 
seen sensitives break off in the midst of a sentence, 
having changed from waking to sleep. This was the 
case with Misses Atzmannsdorfer, Sturmann, Weigand, 
Nowotny, Reichel, Beyer and Kynast. I have hereto- 
fore told how Misses Reichel, Beyer, Atzmannsdorfer, 
Sturmann and Krebs praised the comfort of having a 
few passes made over them after they had fallen asleep, 
particularly just before one left them ; and often 
when I was about to go they would say: "Do give me on- 
ly a few passes, I beg, so that I may sleep soundly." Much 
more complex are the influences of soretic treatment on 
persons in somnambulic sleep. I have already spoken of 
the cases where sensitives have been thrown into cramp 
in this manner ; and now I am to speak of the weaker 
effects, causing slight disturbances of the sleep. 

§ 61. Influence of position in sleep.— One of the 

lowest effects of this class is that felt by the somnam- 
bulist when he lies on his ridit side, with liis back 



MUTUAL RELATIONS OF SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 79 

towards a near stone or brick wall. Another case is 
when his head is turned towards the west or south. 
A third case is that of a person sleeping on the other 
side of the wall, in a reversed position. In all these 
and similar cases, where soretic influences are at work 
upon the somnambulist, he will not rest well. He will 
thrown himself about on his bed and will soon lose 
his covering. He will then sit up and commence to 
speak ; then he will get up and go about his room in 
somnambulism, and if he can, he will open the door 
and go out. From such and similar causes I innumer- 
able times saw Misses Clementine Girtler, Atzmanns- 
dorfer, Reichel, Kynast, Blahusch, Sturmann, Dorfer, 
Rupp and Beyer, and Mrs. Lederer, and many others, 
walking about freely, with closed eyes and asleep. 

§ 62. Moonshine* — A similar cause, and one of 
about equal influence, is the moon. The moon's rays 
are chiefly od-positive. They are not so strong witli 
light as to cause cramps, but just strong enougli when 
operating upon the od-negative side of man to keep 
him in somnambulic sleep, and when operating upon 
his od-positive side to rob him of his rest and make 
him lively. These two contemporaneous influences 
acting upon sleepwalkers, are the causes of their activ- 
ity in moonshine. The soretic irritation is not strong, 
but just so tempered as to enliven and cheer ; the ne- 
metic influence is just suited to render the sleep deep 
and agreeable. Thus the somnambulist is solicited by 
two attractions, and walks about in the moonshine. 
Miss Atzmannsdorfer found tiiat moonshine enlivened 
and cheered her, excited a love of fun when she was 
asleep, but sunshine made her sleep more soundly. 



80 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

This agrees with the influence which might be expected 
from the od-positive rays of the moon and the od-ne- 
gative rays of the sun. If she was, however, in som- 
nambulism when she was exposed to the moonlight, it 
irritated her, deprived her of her good humor and 
made her quick to get angry. 

Miss Angelica Sturmann, at a time of full moon, 
was in the habit of getting up every night, tearing 
open her fastened windows, and clambering along the 
side of the house, on a narroT^ projection of the wall, 
whence a fall to the pavement below would have cer- 
tainly killed her ; and one evening an attempt was 
made, while she was somnambule, to compel her to 
promise not to get out of the window that night ; but 
she positively and stubbornly refused to make such a 
promise. She asserted confidently that she would not 
fall down ; and she added, with an expression of de- 
light, that the moon was a source of such pleasure to 
her she could not deny it to herself ; she must be al- 
lowed to enjoy it. A watch was set upon her and the 
window was tied fast. The moon rose at two o'clock, 
and she then, in her sleep and while the watchman 
slept, tore the curtains and bands away, opened the 
window, and went out in her night-gown, upon the 
cornice, where her neckerchief was found the next 
morning, and on which she must have clambered roimd 
the house. 

Lady Baroness Von Natorp did not know that she 
was restless at night. One morning she could not 
comprehend what had become of the night-gown 
which she had put on the evening before, and she was 
told it had been found in the hall down stairs. Tliis 
happened during a night of beautiful moont^lnnc. She 



MUTUAL RELATIOXS OF SOMXAMBULLSM AXD CRAMP. 81 

watched herself, and obscryed that many little changes 
were made in her household — changes which nobody 
save herself could haye made and of which she had 
yet no recollection. Finally it was discovered that 
all these things were done while she was sleep-walking, 
and always when the moon was full. 

Miss Nowotny often assured me that the moon exer- 
cised no influence on her. Once she lay for a long 
time in bed, and when she at last got up and opened 
her writing desk, she found a half finished purse 
and several half finished letters in her hand, but she 
knew nothing of their commencement. The letters 
were dated the 3rd, 4th, and 5th March, days which 
had passed several weeks previously. I looked back 
in the almanac and found that the moon was full on 
the 4th March. She had therefore undertaken all 
these things while walking in her sleep, and she was 
not a little astonished at the discovery. Misses Atz- 
mannsdorfer and Reichel were always very uneasy at 
full moon, walked about in tlieir sleep, clambered about 
upon roofs and did other dangerous things. A sleep- 
waking baroness whose name I am not permitted to 
use, wrote from the neighborhood of Vienna to her 
physician in the city, urgently requesting him to come 
to see her. He went, but she knew nothing of the let- 
ter, and she was struck with terror when she saw her 
own hand-writing, without being able to comprehend 
how sucli a thing could have happened. It was discov- 
ered that she fell into somnambulism every night 
about two o'clock, and in that state, while the moon 
happened to be full, wrote the letters as stated. Max 
Krucger created disturbances in the Orphan Asylum 
where he was bred, by getting up in moonlight nights 

4* . ■ 



82 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

and walking in his sleep. Mrs. Krebs rose from her 
bed in the moonlight, walked about, jumped over ta- 
bles, clambered up upon doors and so forth. Miss 
Krueger was strongly aifected by moonshine ; she 
always went in her sleep to enjoy it at the window, 
and would attempt to go out, but if she was not per- 
mitted to do this by her servant, she would for the 
purpose of obtaining the consent of the latter, assure 
her that she would not fall. Miss Girtler had to be 
closely watched during full moon, for she was very 
restless at night and would undertake the most daring 
things. On such a night I saw her in a singular excite- 
ment, which if not carefully watched would have led 
to very dangerous adventures, and she did everything 
with such activity that her movements could scarcely 
be followed. Miss Winter in her most susceptible time 
happened to be in Graetz. The communications which 
I received from various other persons about her con- 
duct in the moonlight at this time affrighted me. Her 
restless and violent actions caused an uproar not only 
at the home where she was stopping, but the whole 
street. If she was resisted she seized her maid watch- 
er, struck her, and in her paroxysms showed such an 
extraordinary strength that she threw down the strong- 
est men, who finally were struck with fear at these 
apparently supernatural things. Many of my sensi- 
tives, who were not somnambulists had brothers or 
sisters who were sleepwalkers, and uneasy at times of 
full moon ; thus Professor Roesner had a brother and 
Chevalier Hubert von Rainer was one of seven child- 
ren of whom four, two of each sex, as well as their 
father, were all somnambulists and caused much bother 
on that account in their house. 



MUTUAL RELATIONS OF SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 83 

§ 63. Duration of somnambulic sleep. — Somnambu- 
lic sleeps are of very unequal duration. Sometimes 
they pass away within five minutes, or they may last 
an hour, a day, a night, a week, a month, and even a 
much longer period, but I have witnessed none lasting 
more than a month. Miss Atzmannsdorfer often lay 
five or six days at a time in unbroken sleep in my 
house. Friedrich Weidlich's fits of somnambulism 
usually continue about a week. Miss Kynast slept 
from four to six weeks at a time. Mrs. Krebs had 
lain in uninterrupted somnambulism several months 
when I first saw her, and continued in the same state 
as long as I could visit her. 

§ 64. Somnambulism for women and cramps for men. 

— This somnambulic sleep becomes sometimes a dis- 
eased drowsiness. Mrs. Reichel in her most suscep- 
tible periods would fall asleep in any place, and went 
in her sleep through the streets of Vienna. Miss 
Beyer also fell asleep in the streets. She was for a 
time so subject to the attacks of somnambulism that 
she would go to sleep in any place, and she was found 
sleeping in all corners ; once when she was cleaning 
some knives, she suddenly went to sleep, and her head 
falling, her face was cut on the point of a knife which 
she had in her hand. She would at times become som- 
nambulic when in conversation. The same hapj)ened 
to Miss Atzmannsdorfer. If Professor Lippich, my- 
self, my daughter; or servants approached her at cer- 
tain periods, she would fall asleep in less than a mi- 
nute. Misses Kynast, i51ahusch, Krueger, Dorfer, 
Karhan, Mrs. Kowats, Mrs. Kicnesbcrger, Friedrich 
Weidlich, and Alois Beyer had all similar periods, when 



84 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

the approach of myself or others caused an immediate 
drowsiness which soon changed to an irresistible sleep. 
There are also on the other side sensitives, who are 
equally susceptible to stomach-ache, stomach-cramp, 
fits of megrim head-ache, and cramps of all kinds, and 
to a similar degree. These are chiefly demi-sensitives, 
such as Mrs. Joanna Anschuetz, Mrs. Mueller, Mrs. 
Preinreich, Lady Baroness von Natorp, Misses von 
Weigelsberg, Grlaser, Zinkel, Messrs. Gustav Anschuetz, 
Fichtner, Tirka, Joseph Czabek, Klein, Kollar, Kots- 
chy. Dr. Loew, Mr. Delhez, Dr. Machold, Dr. Mie- 
lichhofer, Barons Henry and August von Oberlaender, 
Councillor Pauer, Chevalier von Sidorowicz, Mr. 
Sturm, and many others. There appears here to be a 
kind of opposition among sensitives, some being more 
inclined to somnambulism and others to cramp-like 
affections. The women seem to be more subject" to 
somnambulism, and men to pains of the head and stom- 
ach ; and from this we may infer that the female sex 
is more easily affected by negative and nemetic in- 
fluences, and the male by positive and soretic. Such 
at least is the general deduction from the statistics of 
my sensitives. This influence is, however, not suffi- 
ciently established to be relied upon, and I mention it 
here only as an aid to further investigation. 

§ 65. Periodicity. — Somnambulism and cramps seem, 
when observed superficially, to commence without reg- 
ularity, as to time. This seeming, however, is due 
altogether to the fact that at every moment there are 
unexpected and accidental external irritations, which 
cause violent attacks of somnambulism and cramp out 
of season. But, if we carefully observe the facts, and 



MUTUAL RELATIONS OF SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 85 

exclude the accidental and strong attacks upon the 
free development of nature, we shall see an unniis- 
takeable and regular periodicity revealed. Miss 
Nowotnv had her attacks of cramp every day, at 6 
P. M., and the hour changed gradually as the days 
grew longer, in the spring, to 7 o'clock, so long as 
everything was quiet in the house. But when disturb- 
ance and mental excitement was brought in from 
without, the attacks came out of season, at midday and 
in the afternoon. When everything was quiet, Miss 
Krueger fell asleep every day at noon. The same was 
the case with Mrs. Kienesberger. Miss Beyer went 
to sleep every evening, between 6 and 7 o'clock. I 
found Miss Weigand in somnambulism every evening 
at 5 o'clock. 

These irritations often followed a certain rhythm 
through the course of the day. Thus Miss Beyer reg- 
ularly felt cool in the morning ; this disappeared in 
the middle of the day, and towards evening her whole 
body was warm, and then the attacks of cramp and 
somnambulism came on. 

§ 66. Temperature of the body. — The commence- 
ment of cramp, as well as of somnambulism, were 
always preceded, so far as I observed, by cold in the 
feet and liands, and warmth in the head. This was 
the rule with Miss Nowotny, and her gradual cure kept 
pace with the restoration of warmth in the feet, by 
means of magnets. Friedrich Wcidlich often com- 
plained about the constant coldness of his feet and 
warmth of his head, before liis periodical attacks. The 
deeper the sleep of Miss Atzmannsdorfer, the colder 
her upper and lower extremetics ; but after she awoke 



86 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

she became perceptibly warmer. Miss Beyer's hands 
and feet were alwaj^s cold when she fell into somnam- 
bulism, in my house, and then tetanus soon followed. 
I observed that with Miss Zinkel cold limbs and a 
warm head always were the forerunners of cramps, 
and while they lasted, a perspiration broke out upon 
the head. This was what might have been expected 
from the soretic condition in which she was. But, at 
the same time, she was somnambule, and consequently 
nemetic. When at last the cramps passed ofl^'and she 
awoke, there was a frostiness and goose-flesh over her 
whole body. These did not disappear for some time, 
and were caused by the nemetic influence which had 
exclusive control after the disappearance of the cramp. 

§ 67. Swellings. — A peculiar but universal pheno- 
menon in highly sensitive women, during fits of som- 
nambulic cramp, is a swelling over the stomach, imme- 
diately under the girdle. People think it a protrusion 
of the stomach, and physicians expressed the same 
opinion to me. They believed that the pilorus and 
the cardia had been drawn together by cramp, and 
then gas developed in the stomach, which was thus 
protruded, there being no exit for the gas. I give the 
explanation for what it may be worth, but I have often 
observed the fact of a swelling over the place of the 
stomach. Miss Zinkel confessed that this phenomenon 
always ended with belching, and that soon after air 
escaped. But a more singular fact came to confirm 
the opinion of the physicians. If this swelling existed 
at a time when Miss Zinkel attempted to drink water, 
the liquid could not get down into the stomach. If I 
now placed the points of the right fingers on the swell- 



MTTTJAL RELATIONS OF SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 87 

ing, the passage seemed to be opened and she could 
feel the water running down into her stomach. The 
cardia was therefore in fact drawn together by cramp ; 
my fingers loosened it, and the passage was opened to 
the water. The commencement of the swelling, as I 
observed innumerable times, was always attended by 
a worm-like movement of the flesh over the stomach, 
as if it were alive — seemingly a kind of peristaltic 
motion. While this was in progress I could cure the 
evil, which had been caused by soretic influences. If 
I now worked nemetically, by making some double 
passes from the neck to the thigs, with short delays 
over the pit of the stomach, which now began to swell, 
the worm-like movement decreased and within one or 
two minutes ceased, and the pain disappeared. If I 
was not present to stop the evil, the pain in the stom- 
ach changed into a cramp, then into a cramp of the 
breast, then into neck-cramps, and the region of the 
stomach swelled up to a frightful size. My slightly 
sensitive daughter Hermine was the first non-somnam- 
bulic sensitive in whom I observed the incipient stages 
of the worm-like motion over the stomach, with pains 
of that organ. In the secondary stages I observed it 
accompanied by slight swellings, in Misses Geraldini, 
Schwartz, Martha Leopolder, Armida Geraldini, Mrs. 
Margaret Kowats, and Mrs. ^Nfueller, (tlie last of whom 
always felt very nervous at such times,) Mr. Leopolder, 
Joseph Zinkelbaier, and innumerable times in Miss 
Zinkel, whom I could always cure by downward passes. 
It was the most violent in Misses Reichel and Beyer, 
in whom the swelling was larger than the breasts, and 
became a deformity. The worm-like movement could 
always be felt inside of the swelling. The evil is 



88 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

increased in Miss Beyer when any one stands or sits 
behind her for a long time, when she eats onions, or 
when upward passes are made over her. It is caused 
by soretic influences. The phenomenon was so frequent 
in Miss Atzmannsdorfer that little attention was paid 
to it at last. I observed its medium stages in many 
sensitives, but it was always accompanied by cramps 
of the breast and stomach, which I could create by 
soretic treatment with upward passes, and so long as 
they had not got the upper hand, I could dispel it at 
will. The further explanation of the pathology and 
therapeutics of the matter I must leave to the physi- 



THE COXDITIOX OF THE SENSES. 89 



CHAPTER YII. 

THE CONDITION OF THE SENSES. 

§ 68. Touchi — It is well known that in somnam- 
bulism the external nerves have lost more or less of 
their acuteness, a condition which resembles that of 
swoon, narcosis, numbness in extreme cold, and the 
state of a man whose nerves are cut or tied up. I 
have collected many examples of this insensibility, but 
as this quality of somnambulists is well known, I shall 
give but a few of them here, for the purpose of show- 
ing how completely sensation is dormant. Miss Rei- 
chel, while somnambulic, stuck pins into her flesh, even 
in her hands, to satisfy me how little feeling she had. 
I saw Miss Nowotny severely pinched and pricked by 
physicians, without her moving a muscle. I myself 
pricked Misses Atzmannsdorfer and Sturmann in the 
arms with a penknife, and they did not wince. While 
Miss Zinkel lay somnamV)ulic in bed, I took liair-pins 
from her liead and pricked her witli them in lier arms, 
at many places, and lacerated the flesli Avith them. 
Slic had her eyes sliut, and did not sliow the least sign 
of pain, but finally asked mo why I was pricking her. 
In reply to my question, whether she felt any pain, she 
said " No." I continued to prick her, and now she 



90 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

was offended, not at any bodily pain, but at the insult. 
It was evident from this that though she felt what I 
was doing, the feeling was not accompanied by pain. 
The sensory nerves were deprived of their functions, 
but she had other means of perception, notwithstand- 
ing her closed eyes. Miss Beyer was pricked deeply 
in her hands with needles, in my presence, and pinched 
till the blood came, but her sleep was not disturbed. 
After several weeks had passed, I often tried the same 
experiments upon her, and always found that the 
nerves of touch were inactive in the places which I 
wounded. 

§ 69. Smell. — Many cases have been observed of the 
temporary loss of smell during somnambulism. I have 
tried Miss Atzmansdorfer in that condition with spir- 
its of ammonia and substances of similar pungent 
odor, and they had no effect on her. But I found an 
opposite case when, without saying a word, I placed 
formichlorode under Miss Beyer's nose. Although she 
did not feel the prick of a needle, she recognized the 
pleasant odor of the chloroform, and praised it and said - 
it made her sleep deeper. I think it probable that all 
somnambulists can by their smell distinguish between 
the positive and negative poles of the magnets, even 
when they can smell nothing else ; but I have not yet 
made the experiment. Attention must be paid to the 
like and unlike sides of the nostrils in this matter, for 
they have poles, as well as the magnets. 

§ 70. Hearius;. — When Miss Nowotny lay in her 
attacks, she heard nothing so long as they lasted. Miss 
Kjueger, while in somnambulism, usually could not 



T'^F COXDITION OF THE SENSES. 91 

hear, but there were intervening periods in which she 
could hear for a few minutes,. and then deafness ensued 
again. Mrs. Joanna Anschuetz often became somnam- 
bulic and then hearing ceased. On such occasions she 
could not hear the loud voice or even the screaming 
of her husband, though her ordinary sleep was very- 
light, and subject to disturbance by the slightest noise. 
But with all other high-sensitives in somnambulism, I 
could converse very well, and in most of them the 
sense of hearing seemed to be but little changed from 
its ordinary condition'. When Misses Reichel, Stur- 
mann, Atzmannsdorfer, Beyer, Zinkel and others felt 
no pain from pricking, I could conveniently converse 
with them ; and they understood every word, con- 
sequently there must be cases of somnambulism where 
the hearing is lost for a time, and others where the 
hearing is good as in the normal state, or even more 
acute. 

§ 71. Hearing at the pit of the stomach. — A singu- 
lar fact to be stated in connection with this part of 
our subject is the hearing through the pit of the stom- 
ach or through the hands. It has long been known 
tliat somnambulists, when they had entirely lost their 
hearing and did not perceive the loudest noises made 
at their ears, would yet suddenly move and give replies 
if tlioy were spoken to witli the mouth close to the 
pit of the stomach, or to tlic hand. A beautiful case 
of tliis kind is reported by Mr. Purkinje, from his own 
observation in Wagner's Hamhcoerterhuch dvr Phy- 
.v'oJofjie ( Vol. Ill, part 2, jo. 448). Such cases occurred 
with Misses Beyer and Zinkel. As an experiment I 
spoke some words in a slight whisper in Miss Krueger's 



92 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAl^rP. 

hand, and she was astonished to hear them plainly. 
She said the words came through her arm as through 
a speaking trumpet, and had struck her ear as if spoken 
with a loud voice. The same was the case with Mrs. 
Joanna Anschuetz. I then advised her husband to 
speak in her hand the next time she should become deaf. 
TJiere was soon an opportunity for him to try the 
experiment, and he reported with joyful astonishment 
that when his wife was in her deaf sleep so that she 
could not hear his loudest outcries at her ear, he had 
whispered lightly in the hollow of her hand and she 
understood him at once and answered him, accompany- 
ing her reply with expressive gesticulations. 

§ 12. Hearing in the hand. — I tried other high and 
demi-sensitives, who could not hear through their ears, 
by whispering in their hands. I whispered lightly in 
the hand of Mrs. Lederer while somnambulic ; she 
heard me very plainly, and also used the expression 
that the sound came up to her ear through her arm as 
through a tube. Miss Kynast clearly heard the slight- 
est sound running up through her arm to the head. I 
whispered in the hands of Mrs. Joanna Anschuetz, in 
her ordinary condition, Mrs. Kienesberger, Lady Ba- 
roness von Natorp, Friedrich Bollman, Mr. Eabe and 
Councillor Pauer, and all understood me although they 
could not hear me when I spoke in the same tone at 
the same distance from their ears and away from their 
hands. Miss Dorfer heard better through her right 
hand than through her left, her right side being the 
more sensitive. Miss Beyer in her waking condition 
heard very well through her hands ; when in somnam- 
bulism she heard well with her ears but better through 



THE COXDITION OF THE SENSES. 93 

her hands, and could even understand me when my 
whispers were so low that I myself could not hear 
them. Miss Atzmannsdorfer in somnambulism had 
good hearing, but when I spoke in her hand she heard 
in two ways ; quickly in the ordinary way ; more 
plainly and perceptibly slower through the hand. She 
felt the sound moving upwards through her arm to 
her head in a brief but measurable space of time. She 
thought the sound was caught up rather by the finger- 
points tlian by the hollow of the hand. She observed 
to me that she had lOng known this from her own 
experience, and that it was her custom, when anxious 
to hear distinctly, to hold out her hands and fingers 
towards the point whence the sound came. Another 
time she told me that in somnambulism she heard every- 
thing less clearly, as tliough spoken in the distance, 
except when I spoke in her hand, and then she heard 
clearly. This is characteristic of the whole condition. 
We see that an odic movement commences at the fin- 
ger-points and moves with its peculiar slowness up the 
nerves of the arm. 

This fact appears still plainer from the experiments 
with Miss Zinkel. I spoke in tlie hollows of lier riglit 
and left hands, and then spoke the same words upon 
the united finger-points of both hands together, and she 
heard the words spoken there more clearly than those 
spoken in the palms of her hands. The seat of the 
perception for sound is therefore in the finger-points. 

I then by turns spoke upon tlie right and tlie left 
finger-points, she perceived tliat slio lieard mucli clearer 
on the right than on the left side. The sound was there- 
fore perceived more strongly on the like than on the 
I nlike pole, and thus proved itself to belong to one }>ole. 



94 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

Finally I spoke to her alternately upon the finger 
points and away from them, in every case holding my 
mouth at the same distance from the sensitive's ear and 
speaking in the same direction. The result was that 
when I spoke upon her right fingers she understood 
me better than when I spoke in the air and better 
when I spoke in the air than when I spoke on the 
left finger points. All these facts go to show the 
odic nature of these phenomena of hearing. 

Here a phenomenon accompanying those hitherto 
mentioned deserves a place. When I spoke upon the 
finger-points of some sensitive women, they felt a sen- 
sation similar to that of an upward pass going up 
through the whole arm, under the shoulder, across to 
the nipple of the breast, where it concentrated and 
passed out ; and immediately afterwards a similar 
sensation passed downward through the legs, following, 
as described to me, the course of the sciatic nerve. On 
the left side the sensation was disagreeably lukewarm ; 
on the right arm it was less unpleasant. The bare 
breath did not produce the same effect, neither did low 
speaking ; it required the voice. The peculiar sensa- 
tion passing downwards through the feet and particu- 
larly in the toes was felt by Miss Zinkel, and stronger 
in the right toes than in the left. All this appears to 
be in the highest degree noteworthy. 

§ 73. Odic hearing at the stomach.— It was the 

same with the pit of the stomach as with the hand. 
All sensitives upon whom I experimented, whether in 
somnambulism -or in their waking condition — Misses 
Reichel, Atzmannsdorfer, Sturmann, Kynast, Maix, 
Mrs. Anschuetz, Kienesberger, Friedrich, Weidlich, and 



THE COXDITIOX OF THE SENSES. 95 

many others — heard more plainly when I spoke close 
to their stomach-pits. Councillor Paiier heard the 
ticking of his watch always on the pit of his stomachy 
and when nervous he could hear at his stomach every 
stroke of a violin played in his presence. At a time 
when Miss Zinkel was peculiarly sensitive, I made the 
following experiment with great care ; I spoke first on 
the right and then on the left side of the pit of her 
stomach. The effects were very strong but also very 
different. On the right side she could liear my words 
clearly, on the left indistinctly. But this apparently 
unimportant experiment had such an influence on her 
that she was immediately attacked by pain in the stom- 
ach, which swelled up in a few minutes, and was soon 
attacked by severe pains, and she had to hurry to sit 
down to avoid falling. I took hold of her hands, 
made some passes over her body, and placed my unlike 
fingers under her toes. The pain was alleviated at the 
end of one minute, and was entirely removed after the 
lapse of three. Here also we see all the signs of odic 
action. Where like poles came togetlier the od-nega- 
tive voice on the right hand or on the right side of the 
solar plexus (the chief ganglion of the sympathetic 
nerve) the influence was soretic and went upwards to 
the brain, where it was felt. Where unlike poles 
came together, the negative voice on the positive left, 
the influence was nemetic, and went downwards away 
from tlie brain, and the hearing was dull. These facts 
arc very important to sustain tlie theory. 

Thus we see the susccptil)ility for odic movcmonts 
is so great in the liands and the pit of the stomach, that 
is in tlio solar plexus and in the numberless nerves on 
the finger-points, that they carry the influence of even 



96 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

low notes to the brain with such clearness that words 
are better understood through them than through the 
ear, and even understood when the ear entirely refuses 
to perform its duty in somnambulism. That these phe- 
nomena are odic in their nature is shown among other 
things by the influence of the sounds on the breast- 
nipples and feet, by the slowness of its conduction, and 
the characteristics of polarity. 



§ 74. Taste. — Similar observations have been made 
in regard to taste, and a few examples will be given 
here. When Miss Beyer had to handle vinegar or lye 
and got her fingers wet with them, she tasted them in 
her mouth, particularly if she is in a susceptible con- 
dition — for instance, during menstruation. Not long 
before she told me this, she had used some ox-gall in 
washing, and she could not finish her work, because of 
the bitterness of the gall in her mouth. Although she 
washed her hands off immediately with soap, the bitter 
taste in her mouth yet continued two days : the gall 
had been rubbed into her skin, and so long as it re- 
mained, so long she tasted its bitterness on her tongue. 
When Mr. Fichljaer passed his hand over dirty oxy- 
dized brass, he felt the nauseating taste of verdigris in 
his mouth, and he could not get rid of this taste till 
he had washed his hands with soap. When I put an- 
timony in Miss Atzmannsdorfer's hand she tasted its 
bitterness in her mouth. Misses Zinkclbaier and many 
others had a coppery taste in their mouth whenever 
they took copper money into their hands during men- 
struation. Professor von Perger is like Mr. Fichtner 
in regard to touching brass ; and if he takes a piece 



THE COXDITIOX OF THE SENSES. 97 

of iron in his hand, he feels an iron-like taste in his 
mouth. Similar phenomena are observed by all demi- 
sensitives. 

The physicians say this a consensuality of the nerves, 
but that is as much as to say they do not understand 
this phenomena. 

§ 75. Sight. — Xearly all somnambulists keep their 
eyes closed. I saw them sometimes open only in Miss 
Winter, and Mrs. Lederer, and Miss Girtler ; all oth- 
ers kept them shut as in ordinary sleep. I often opened 
their eyes by force — for instance, in Misses Sturmann, 
Reichel, Atzmannsdorfer, Beyer and Nowotny ; the 
pupils were in some turned upwards, in others down- 
wards ; in all the cases I could touch the bare whites 
of the eyes without their appearing to feel it. 

Miss Beyer's eyes were turned downwards, and while 
her physician held licr lids open, I held a burning candle 
as close as possible to her eyes. We could not perceive 
that the enlarged pupil contracted in consequence of 
the proximity of the light. She held perfectly still. 
Afterwards, however, she complained, while still in the 
somnambulic condition, about the light, which, as she 
said, had got into head. Whether the disagreeable 
sensations in her head tlius complained of, were caused 
by the light of tlie candle, or ]jy the chemical od ema- 
nations of the combustion is a question which must lie 
over for further consideration. 

It is evident that there could be no sight by tlie or- 
dinary means under such circumstances. The sight of 
tlie eye was lame and inactive in all these persons in 
soinnainbiilism, as has been long wrll known In siniihir 



98 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

§ 76. Seeing with the eyes shut.— Nevertheless, these 
persons saw all the objects about them, more or less 
clearly, as well by day as by night, and sometimes with 
an astonishing exactness. In chapter first I mentioned 
some examples, and like examples are in everybody's 
mouth, as occurring without number in every land, so 
that I can pass on without dwelling longer on this 
point. I have only to say here that this perception of 
the external world by somnambulists has come before 
me so often, that there is no longer room for any doubt. 
How it is the mind can receive impresssons of light and 
of the form of the physical world, so that a picture re- 
sembling an optical impress is painted in the soul — 
how this can be, is a problem for the present. 

§ 77. Explanation of seeing without eyes. — I do 

not admit, however, that this problem is so entirely 
beyond the power of solution as is asserted by our phy- 
sicists and physiologists, who think they have the right 
to straightway reject as untrue the thousand-times con- 
firmed facts. I am satisfied that the odic laws which 
I have discovered must furnish a solution to this prob- 
lem, or at least supply hints which will point out the 
road to the causes of the enigmatical seeing of som- 
nambulists without using their eyes. How does it 
happen that a piece of glass or mica, or crystal, water 
or air appears transparent to us ? Certainly only be- 
cause we perceive bodies, on which light falls, beyond 
them. We agree that these bodies send out rays of 
light to our eyes, through the transparent substances 
which permit the rays to ]iass through them. It mat- 
ters not what kind of a radiation this is, provided only 
that we have a sense to perceive it. To be perceived 



THE COXDITIOX OF THE SENSES. 99 

by the eyes, the radiating medium must be light. In 
the eye is the retina, a web of nerves laid completely 
bare to the light such as cannot be found in any other 
part of our body. The light-rays by passing through 
certain substances and then falling on the bare nerves 
come to our perception, and then we call those sub- 
stances transparent. If we had a distinct instead of an 
indistinct apparatus for perceiving the rays of heat, we 
should see through diathermanous bodies with our heat- 
eyes, as we see through diaphanous with our light-eyes, 
and we should look with tolerable ease through dark 
glass, clouded topaz and black mica, and clearly recog- 
nize everything sending out heat-rays behind them. 

Let us now apply these ideas to od, which as we 
know, emits rays as light and heat do, and pours down 
from the planets and stars ; we have learned that it 
passes through every thing — walls, iron, copper, zinc 
and lead, glass, wood, air, water and so forth — similar 
but not exactly like magnetism ; and we know finally 
that it continually streams out, day and night, from all 
substances, and communicates itself to the surroundings 
of each. If now we had an organ, a sense for this 
queer thing called od, and if that sense should catch 
up the odic rays as our eye does the rays of light, and 
if we should perceive in our mind the rays as they come 
to us from every suV)stance, tlie result would evidently 
be that we sliould have a representation, according to 
well-known psychological laws, of the position of the 
body sending out the odic rays, and by means of tlie 
odic light we would see od-luminous, and od-illuminated 
substances. 

§ 78. High-sensitives have a sense for od.— Now 



100 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

then, high-sensitives have such a sense. Why it is, and 
how the sense is constituted, I know as little as other 
learned people know about the constitution of the 
senses of smell, taste and touch. But that such a 
power of perception does exist in extraordinary con- 
dition of health is proved by this entire book, in in- 
numerable concurring experiences. Since od passes 
unchanged and without interruption through the skin, 
and since the numberless nooses, ends and ganglions of 
the nerves must be considered as bare for od, as the 
retina-nerves are for light, therefore the whole body, 
or rather the whole nervous system may be called only 
one eye, through and through, for radiating od. Low- 
sensitives, when in the dark, use their eyes to assist 
them in perceiving the odic rays ; but high-sensitives, 
particularly in somnambulism, when the eye ceases to 
perform its functions and the lids are closed, have the 
entire nervous system as an organ of perception. All 
sensitives recognize the perceptible effects of od, but 
the high-sensitives chiefly the odic flame, the odic light 
and its rays. Where the rays find clear passage 
through other bodies, the result is about the same as 
when light rays fall on glass. Aj)late of metal for a 
high-sensitive bears the- same relation to od tliat a plate 
of glass does for a common person in relation to light. 
As in the latter case the rays of light go through, so in 
the former case do the rays of od. Glass is permeable 
for rays of light ; rock-salt for rays of heat ; metals 
and other bodies are permeable for rays of od. Since 
now a high-sensitive person obtains pictures and re- 
presentations of objects by means of the odic rays which 
they emit or reflect, and these pictures and represen- 
tations must be obtained when the rays have to pass 



THE COXDITION OF THE SENSES. 101 

through intervening substances, which last may be 
called diodanoiis, or permeable to od, [as we say "dia- 
phanous," permeable to light, and " diathermanous," 
permeable to heat.] Metals are particularly diodanous 
bodies, and so are all bodies of continuous substance, 
such as crystals, but unconnected pieces such as paper, 
powder, cotton, are diodanous in a low degree. There 
is therefore in man a dormant power, which in certain 
nervous diseased conditions is awakened and made ac- 
tive, and is able to see with more or less clearness 
through many bodies otherwise opaque, while on the 
other hand some substances permit the passage of odic 
rays with wonderful ease and exactness. 

§ 79. Vision clearest in darkness. — One of the most 
important features of somnambulism is that in that 
state the sight is better in the dark than in the light. 
The somnambulists therefore sec not by means of the 
light but of some other medium. 

Miss Girtler described to me as well as she could 
that her sight was good in proportion to the depth of 
tlie darkness about her. All common light was a 
burthen to her, pained her and dimmed the clearness 
of her perception. When it was perfectly dark she 
could see the forms and colors of the objects about hor 
almost as clearly as when awake in daylight. I in- 
quired for further particulars but learned no tiling 
more. She declared that though she saw without using 
her eyes, yet she did not know how. 

Miss Weigand, when soninamlmlic, often told mc 
that she perceived surrounding objects with a distinct- 
ness that increased with the depth of the darkness. 
Candle-light, and moonlight still more, caused her sight 



102 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

(with closed eyes) to be much less clear. When Miss 
Reichel, in somnambulism, saw sandle-light at a dis- 
tance she walked away ; and if an attempt was made 
to detain her she became impatient and the light had 
to be taken away. When I visited Miss Zinkel in 
somnambulism at night, her first word was always to 
request that the light should be put out ; she said it 
hurt her and prevented her seeing. But her eyes were 
closed. When I had put out the light she expressed 
satisfaction, and assured me that she could see me much 
better. Mrs. Krebs, in her long periods of unbroken 
somnambulism, could endure no light, and it was neces- 
sary to keep her chamber in deep darkness day and 
night. 

§ 80. Miss AtzmaiiJisdorfer's statemeot, — When Miss 
Atzmannsdorfer was deeply somnambulic, she made 
similar declarations. As the first condition for seeing 
clearly, she demanded complete darkness. Whenever 
the weakest glare of daylight or candlelight became 
perceptible, her sight was less distinct. She could still 
see in open daylight but much less clearly. When I 
demanded of her a comparison between the clearness 
of vision in somnambulism and darkness on one side, 
and the normal state and daylight on the other, she 
said she saw all the outlines much more clearly in the 
latter. Nothing shows more satisfactorily that in 
somnambulism is not the function of the eyes alone, 
than the desire of sleep-walkers, as I heard it from 
them on every occasion, that the light should be re- 
moved and the assertion that they could see best when 
it is darkest ; that is, they see best when the medium 
through Avhich the eyes see is most completely removed. 



THE CONDITION OF THE SENSES. 103 

Consequently the sleep-walkers see tliroiigli another 
medium which, under all the circumstances, with their 
high sensitiveness to od, can scarcely be anything 
save od. 

In the consideration of all these declarations it must 
be remembered that all light falling on objects is re- 
flected to the seeing eye. Yet the light, which the 
somnambulist does not see, is not reflected alone to the 
eye, but is accompanied by od which comes with the 
rays of light, and which is perceived with closed eyes. 
When he is in complete darkness he perceives objects 
by means of their odic radiation, but when light comes 
and mixes itself with the odic rays there is a two-fold 
radiation, and the somnambulist unable to distinguish 
clearly between them, has his vision obscured. 

Miss Atzmannsdorfer gave the further explanation 
that she could see through many objects, so that she 
could perceive second and third objects behind them. 
If a number of glasses of different colors and shapes, 
heated to a slight glow, were piled up in a box, the 
non-sensitive eye could see some of those ])elow through 
those above ; and thus the sensitives in somnambulism 
see many objects througli and behind others. 

§ 81 . Miss Krue^er's statement.— Miss Amelia Krue- 
ger, when somnambulic, made a similar explanation to 
me. She found it diflicult to give me a clear descrip- 
tion of how she did see. She had studied some modern 
languages grammatically, and therefore was l)ctter able 
to express her ideas than most of the other soninanil)U- 
lists of my acquaintance. Like Miss Atzmannsdorfer, 
she explained that slie saw objects as translucent — 
seeing one through others ; the objects shining through 



104 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

each other somewhat as if they were colored glasses. 
Yet, she added, the somnambulists view of things is 
not so clearly defined, but they appear more as if they 
were melted together, the outlines being less definite 
than when seen by the normal eyes in daylight. All 
this agrees accurately with the odic nature of bodies, 
where one sends its odic rays through another and thus 
makes the latter transparent. 

§ 82. ScientiOc explanation of ordinary vision. — 

I cannot explain how the somnambulic mind receives 
an impression of the forms of the bodies within the 
range of perception from the odic rays as perceived by 
the nerves, but neither can the physiologist explain to 
me how the light-pictures thrown by the crystalline 
lens on the nerve-coat of the retina are carried to the 
brain, and changed there into psychical conceptions of 
the material objects which emit the rays of light. He 
can trace his light-picture to the opaque retina where 
it stops ; and thus he and I have made like progress, 
and are puzzled by similar problems. The explanation 
and the comprehension in both cases stop at the same 
limit. 

§ 83. Clairvoyance brought under natural laws.— 

Now that we have reached the principal laws of the 
matter, and ba^ed them on the foundations of exper- 
ience, we perceive that, as the ghosts over the graves 
of the dead, so also a large part of clairvoyance, horr- 
ibly distorted as it has been, comes within the domain 
of natural science. Every one will now understand 
that there are men who can read writing shut up in 
metallic boxes, not only by day but also in the dark- 
ness of night, and not only with open but also with 



THE COXDITIOX OF THE SENSES. 105 

closed, or bandaged eyes. I liave seen Miss Girtler 
spontaneously take up a book and read to me with 
closed eyes as readily as when she had her eyes open. 
Miss Atzmannsdorfer, less sensitive, has innumerable 
times in my presence taken up objects and distinguished 
them by placing them at the top of her forehead, ob- 
jects which she could not otherwise distinguish, her 
eyes being closed by disease. The sensitive perceptive 
faculty was unequally distributed in her body; in some 
places the perception was much more acute than in oth- 
ers. And since this is true according to natural laws 
and has been confirmed by my own experience, we can 
comprehend and explain how a liigh-sensitive can per- 
ceive what is going on in an adjoining closed room, in 
a neighboring house, in a house across the street and 
so forth. We now understand how it is that a high- 
sensitive, sick abed with closed eyes, expecting the ar- 
rival of his physician, suddenly cries out "Now he is 
coming : he has just come into the house ; he is on the 
stairs ; he is about to open the door." Such things 
have often been observed ; and very lately by Dr. 
Stainer. 

§ 84. Seeina: into the human body.— Again we can 

now comprehend how a high-sensitive can see into his 
own body, and perceive its interior as if in a looking- 
glass ; as Misses Sturmann, Atzmannsdorfer, Girtler, 
Krueger, Rcichel, and many others have often assured 
me that they have done ; and finally how they can see 
into the bodiesofotlier persons near them and perceive 
organic defects, which no physician couhl discover, 
such as putrefaction, tu])ercles and inflammations in 
the lungs, liver and stomach. When I asked after the 

5* 



106 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

manner of their perception, they told me the interior 
of the body appeared rather as luminous than as illu- 
minated ; the luminousness being different in color and 
intensity; the stomach giving out a strong white light; 
the liver and lungs weaker light, etc. Miss Atzmanns- 
dorfer repeated to me the simile of the glowing hot 
glasses in a box, but covered with a transparent liquid. 
A non-sensitive eye looking down in daylight would 
see all these glasses; and in a like manner the sensitive 
eye sees and distinguishes the internal organs of the , 
human body, all slightly luminous. Thus Miss Zinkel, 
with whom, when somnambulic, I often spoke about her 
condition, always assured me that her left ovarian tube 
was clear and clean, but the right one was dark and 
diseased. Miss Girtler requested urgently, when in 
somnambulism, that the looking glass should be covered 
so that she should not see her viscera in it, as the in- 
sides of anatomical subjects are seen in the dissecting 
rooms. Mrs. Krebs made a similar request and for 
like reasons. Cloths, as I have shown, are the worst 
conductors of od, and therefore are suitable to prevent 
the odic rays from going to and coming from the look- 
ing glass. Miss Krueger assured me that in tlie high- 
est susceptibility of somnambulism, she had once seen 
into the body of another person, perceiving the viscera 
with tolerable clearness, the stomach most clearly; and 
she had often seen the internal parts of her own body. 
On such occasions she could distinguish the various 
parts, and all appeared to be in a healthy condition 
save the heart, which suffered from a malformation. 
She said all the organs were luminous, as in an odic 
sense, they must be, since chemical action and motion 
of liquids are constantly going forward in them. It 



THE COXDITIOX OF THE SEXSE. 107 

is in this purely physical manner that somnambulists 
are sometimes of service in the medical art, discovering 
the nature of disease and foreseeing its future course, 
and telling such things as whether there is a prospect 
that a woman will become a mother, and what the sex 
of her offspring will be, what is in a locked drawer, 
what people have hidden in their hands or their pock- 
ets, whether a certain card is a heart or a club, a king 
or a knave, etc. To sick sensitives, walls, drawers, 
pockets, and closed hands, are all diodanous, transpar- 
ent for their sense, though opaque to us. For them a 
metallic box is like a glass bottle ; a body or a closed 
fist covers what is within like a veil. The odic ema- 
nations continue night and day; the odic light is per- 
ceived better in darkness than in daylight ; and since 
in the highest phases of somnambulism the eye is in- 
active and without vision, though the perceptive power 
operates by other means, partly by the whole nervous 
system, partly by particular places, for instance at the 
top of the forehead, as in Miss Atzmannsdorfer, in oth- 
ers at the pit of the stomach and at the ends of the 
fingers, so it is quite indifferent to the high-sensitives, 
whether their eyes are bandaged and glued over or 
not ; it is for them about the same as it would be to 
bandage tlie elbow of a non-sensitive, who has good 
eyes, to keep him from seeing a camel. 

§ 85. Dangerotis revelatioos by clairvoyance.— It 

will be observed how dangerous this condition is for 
the surroundings of sick sensitives, and for themselves, 
and on the other side how advantageously it may be 
used, under certain circumstances, in learning the exist- 
ence of good and evil. In my own house it happened 



108 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

that a somnambulist whom I introduced there denounc- 
ed a servant girl for immoral conduct, in which nobody 
believed, and the truth of her declaration was only 
established after the lapse of months ; and other reve- 
lations which she made caused a revolution in the 
house, and resulted in the dismissal of several servants. 
Miss Beyer was seen one still moonlight night to rise 
from an apparently quiet sleep, which, however, was 
somnambulic. She was silently observed. She lay 
down on the floor, crawled with much difficulty under 
the bedstead, and finally came forth, her eyes being 
closed all the time, having in her hand a copper kreu- 
zer, of which no one knew anything. She laid the 
kreuzer down on the table and went again quietly to 
bed. She had felt the radiation of the copper through 
the bed. No secret act that is done in the house es- 
capes the all-piercing eye of the acute sensitive, and 
their ordinary talkativeness tells everything without 
selection. As agents of the police and the inquisition 
somnambulists might render extraordinary services in 
many cases, and in so far it is fortunate that high 
clairvoyance lasts only through short stages of certain 
diseases, ordinarily enduring only a few hours at a 
time, often periods of only a half or a quarter of an 
hour, which periods are repeated at irregular intervals 
of two or more days. Wise physicians may use this 
power with great benefit, to examine the doubtful con- 
dition of diseased internal organs ; but ignorant and 
foolish persons will commit mistakes and do evil 
with it, 

§ 86. Summary about clairvoyaucc— I have given 
thus what I have found to be true in regard to clair- 



THE COXDITIOXS OF THE SENSES. 109 

Tovance. It is just enough to be misused by ignorant 
and conscienceless men. To one view of this sad side 
I shall give no attention. But I cannot conceal a deep 
regret that men of high worth and physicists of com- 
preliensiye learning are often so weak as to convince 
themselves that they may undervalue matters of the 
highest scientific importance, because ignorance or 
meanness may misuse them for wicked pui*poses. There 
is nothing mean in nature, and least of all in those ob- 
jects which grasp deep into the spiritual nature and 
innermost essence of humanity, as do the subjects of 
this treatise. Such a short-sighted prejudice is as ab- 
surd as the folly of others who worship clairvoyants 
like idols, and make laws of their inconsiderate ex- 
pressions. Clairvoyance has some phases which must 
excite the highest interest in all thinking men, who 
have sufficient capacity to break through the spell of 
outward appearance, and direct the probe towards tlic 
grounds laying deep beneath. I believe that I have 
reached and uncovered tliose grounds from two points 
of view : from the direct and reflex odic phenomena, 
which healtliy persons, with rare exceptions, do not 
see, and from the diodanous nature of bodies, which 
offers the key to solve the singular enigmas of sensi- 
tiveness, and enables us to comprehend tilings licreto- 
fore included within the domain of insanity. 

Witli tliis every one will be in a position to draw 
the dividing line between tlie true and the false, be- 
tween the trustworthy and untrustworthy, between 
lionesty and dishonesty, in the field of clairvoyance. 
Predictions about the fate of men, assertions about 
events occurring at a groat distance, statements of the 
condition of affairs beyond the limits of our world, or 



110 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

beyond the range of our existence, etc., find no expla- 
nation in physics, certainly not now, and belong to the ' 
territory of diseased fancies, and a little observation 
will always show that they are entirely wanting in lo- 
gical connection. 

I have not as yet collected further observations in 
regard to clairvoyance — this very important phase of 
the somnambulic phenomena, which should be studied 
very carefully and conscientiously — and I shall post- 
pone till another time the more thorough study of it, 
because I consider the physical bases of the odic phe- 
nomena as the most important, and as necessary for 
the foundation of every investigation of the other high 
psychical branches. 

But from the little heretofore communicated, the sig- 
nificant facts are established in regard to most high- 
sensitives in the somnambulic condition, that — 

1. They have their eyes closed. 

2. Nevertheless, they perceive the forms and colors of 
the external world. 

3. Their perception is better and stronger in darkness 
than in light. 

4. They perceive bodies as, in a certain manner, trans- 
lucent and visible through each other. 

5. In the same manner they can look into the human 
body. 

6. This perception is not so clear as our ordinary 
vision in daylight. 

Y. This pierccption finds the beginning of its explana- 
tion in the diodancity, in the p>ermeahility of all bodies, 
metals, glasses, the human body and the nervous system 
to the odic rays, all the nervous gaughings being consid- 
ered as eyes for od. 



THE MUSCLES IN CRAMP. Ill 



CHAPTER Ym. 

THE MUSCLES IN CRAMP. 

§ 87. Cramp an unToluntary contraction. — Cramp, 
as is well known, is an involuntary contraction of the 
muscles, and therefore a violent exertion of force which 
passes over from the nerves to the muscles. Such at 
least is the physiological theory at the present time. 
This exertion of force may be involuntary and. spon- 
taneous, or intentional and developed by an exercise of 
the will. By what means the nervous system thus 
accumulates power we do not know. When cramp is 
s])ontaneously developed in high sensitives, its approach 
is usually announced by certain premonitory symptoms. 
The sensitives are restless, they feel timid, the blood 
rushes to the upper part of the frame, the feet become 
cold and the head hot ; the nights pass away without 
sleep, the nerves become more impressible and irri- 
table. The enemy is now at the door. 

If the cramp is introduced by artificial means wc 
find all the phenomena to be odic. The power is ac- 
cumulated by soretic treatment of the body, whether 
by uf)ward passes towards the Ijrain, or hy downward 
part-passes, if their influence be soretic in places. I 
have shown that a hand, an arm, or a foot would l>o 
cramped when I made passes over the arm, stopping 



112 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

at the wrist or over the leg stopping at the ankle. 
These cramps, of a purely voluntary creation, are the 
immediate consequence of soretic influences, which may 
be considered as an accumulation of od in the cramped 
limb. The result is the same when upward passes are 
made over the arm or over the body towards the head, 
they throw the high-sensitive and even the demi-sensi- 
tive into the most violent cramps of the arms, legs and 
spine. Since they can be immediately cured at will 
in the same manner as they were voluntarily created, 
namely, by nemetic treatment, so I may assert that my 
investigations have given a satisfactory explanation of 
this kind of cramps, in so far as such an explanation 
of a vital process of this nature is possible. 

§ S8. Severity of strain. — The muscles are terribly 
strained in cramp. I often saw Miss Reichel striking 
her arms and hands with such force against the walls, 
that I thought they must be crushed, at a time when 
she was so suffocated during breast and neck cramps 
as to turn blue ; opisthotonus bent her back upwards, 
so that only her head and heels touched the bed, and 
she tore her face cruelly with her hands. I had noth- 
ing to say, and the physicians looked on, not knowing 
what to do. I saw Miss Sturmann in similar furious 
cramps. She would have bitten her own arm to pieces 
had not Count Szapary, a very strong man, been pre- 
sent, and held her so that she could not injure herself. 
I saw Miss Atzmannsdorfer almost daily in tonic and 
clonic cramps, with opisthotonus, wlierein the strain of 
the muscles was horrible. The worst case was that of 
Miss Winter, who, as I have already stated, beat the 
strongest men and threw them down, so that everybody 



THE MUSCLES IX CRAMP. 113 

in Graetz was afraid of her when she was in her fits 
of somnambulism and cramp. 

§ 89. Prevention of cramps. — The phenomena of 
^ramp were the most instructive in Miss Beyer. When 
-he was attacked with it, she took hold of my hands, 
-0 that the touch would be beneficial to her by its ne- 
metic influence. While she struggled with tetanus, 
she grasped my arms from time to time and shut her 
] lands upon them with all her force. Every such an 
exertion of strength did her good, stopped her tears, 
and relieved and arrested her cramps. It often hap- 
])ened that during somnambulism, accompanied by 
cramp, she would beg permission to press me, and did 
it then with all her might. Every such voluntary 
exertion relieved her for a time from the involuntary 
-train of cramp ; there was always an odic discharge 
which took the place of the cramp. Miss Beyer was 
])resent at a table-tipping soiree, which, as might have 
l>cen foreseen, exercised a strong influence on her. She 
took the mixed odic influence received from the table 
liome with her, and that night she became somnambu- 
lic. At midnight she awoke and found herself in her 
night dress, trying to lift the largest and heaviest 
cliest in her room. At other times, when she was nei- 
ther somnam])ulic nor attacked by cramp, slie would 
be restless, sleepless, she could not breathe freely 
enough, licr lieart seemed oppressed and timid, she 
wept involuntarily, and she was evidently in the con- 
dition which precedes cramp, and in which sensitives 
ay that they are full of cramps — a condition of sore- 
tic overloading of the brain. At such times Miss 
Beyer felt an irresistible desire to exercise her strength 



114 SOMMNABULISM AND CRAMP. 

in some manner. She would then seize the heaviest 
boxes in the house and lift them up ; she would put 
herself in a doorway and push with all her might 
against the opposite posts ; she would challenge men 
to wrestle, and notwithstanding her small size she 
would throw down the strongest. After that she felt 
well, the feeling of oppression passed away, the weep- 
ing ceased, her heart was light, and she became weak 
as in ordinary times. She always fell into this ex- 
traordinary condition during full moon, that is at the 
period when positive od is much accumulated in our 
country. This positive od, by its influence on her 
brain, led her to the verge of cramp, that is, of an in- 
voluntary exertion of strength, which she prevented 
by a voluntary exertion suggested by instinct. 

Nothing could show more beautifully that cram])s 
consist in a superabundant accumulation of power in 
the brain, which power is poured over the muscles, 
particularly those of the extremities. The brain acts 
in this matter like a wound-up watch-spring. 

During their cramps, the somnambules, who had had 
some experience, often requested that no influence 
should be exercised on them from without, and that 
their paroxysms should be left to exhaust themselves 
in their natural course. Thus spoke Misses Reichel, 
Sturmann, Girtler, Krueger, Atzmannsdorfer and Ky- 
nast. Miss Reichel protested most urgently against 
all influence with magnets, because the cramps, instead 
of being bettered, were made to last longer ; and after- 
wards Miss Zinkel spoke to the same efiect. I have 
often shown that tlie magnet, as a mass of iron, is od- 
positive, and therefore is not opposed to negative in- 
fluences, but o[)eratcs to excite cramps ; and for this 



THE MUSCLES IX CRAMP. 115 

reason many somnambulists dislike it. Nevertheless 
I have noticed, under unequivocal circumstances, that 
not only cramps brought on voluntarily by soretic 
treatment may be cured by nemetic downward joasses, 
extending over the wliole body, but that severe attacks 
of natural cramps have a remedy in downward passes, 
managed with prudence, as may be understood from 
the theory hitherto set forth. 

I first proved this fact with Miss Krueger. While 
somnambulic she has fallen into severe cramps. I 
gave her no passes, but seized her unlike hands in 
mine, and placed my unlike toes under hers. I soon 
saw the* spasms relax, her muscles became soft, the 
cramps were allayed, and in less than a quarter of an 
hour, complete rest was restored. I often applied this 
knowledge upon Miss Atzmannsdorfer usually when 
she fell into cramps, I took her hands in mine, in- 
fluenced her thus nemetically and soon all was well 
again. I once saw Mrs. Martha Leopolder, while in a 
large company, attacked by cramps of the arms and 
breast. I took hold of her hands and in two or three 
minutes she was cured. Miss Beyer knowing from 
much experience the influence of my hands to cure 
cramps, when she was attacked by them, grasped my 
lingers and held their points in the points of hers, 
'i'lie influence to cure the cramps was strong in pro])or- 
tion to my strength and vigor : and thus when I liad 
tired myself with a long walk, I could not cure her so 
-non, as when I felt fresh and active. I cured Miss 
/inkel of all kinds of cramps innumerable times in 
the same way. But in all these cases it was necessary 
that the hands should be grasped in the right manner, 
inside to inside, crossing downwards, with the finger- 



116 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

points projecting, to prevent any soretic influence. 
Often the speediest relief is obtained by grasping the 
toes with the unlike fingers. If I used passes in such 
cases, the influence was always perceptibly weaker. 
The causes of this may be easily explained. Down- 
ward passes operate nemetically, it is true, upon all 
descending nerves, but they also meet a multitude 
of ascending cutaneous nerves, especially if not made 
carefully over the inner side of the arm, and thus 
they may exercise a soretic influence. The result 
is that the cramp-haling effect on one side is spoiled 
by the cramp-exciting influence on the other. In 
this way it is, that patients in a very susceptible con- 
dition cannot be cured of cramps by passes, but must 
loe left to themselves. I tried with passes to cure 
Miss Atzmannsdorfer and Beyer of cramps, at the 
distance of a step and more. The effect was good, and 
relieved the cramps ; but if after making the passes, 
I went backwards, even with my arms bent sidewards, 
Miss Beyer always shuddered ; and single upward pass 
made at a distance of two steps threw her into all of 
the scarcely arrested cramps. 

§ 90. Summary. — From all this it appears clearly 
that soretic and nemetic influences are universally the 
cause and cure of cramps, and consequently that the 
contractions and extensions of the muscles in cramp 
are entirely dependent on the upward and downward 
streams of od in them. 

I reviewing the relations of the senses in somnam- 
bulism and the accompanying cramp we find that the 
senses sometimes remain in full activity, sometimes 
are partly and sometimes entirely inactive ; that at 



THE MUSCLES IX CRAMP. 117 

times some of the senses are active and others are 
not ; that the circumstances determining these grades 
of activity are yet far from being understood ; that 
the place of the inactive organs of sense is sometimes 
supplied by other means of perception which carry 
similar impressions to the mind ; that the impressions 
are only similar and not the same in kind with those 
furnished through the organs of ordinary sense ; that 
the new faculty of perception has the quality, pre- 
viously unknown, of seeing through matter opaque to 
light, and finally that in this way, the inside of or- 
ganic substances and even of the human body may be 
perceived. 



118 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE NERVES IN SOMNAMBULISM. 

§ 91. No two cases of somnambulism alike. — The 

relations of the nerves in somnambulism offer a great, 
an immeasurable field for physiology, over which I 
have been able only to take a glance. I have been so 
busy with the main principles and the physical rela- 
tions of od, that I must leave this matter for my suc- 
cessors : and my remarks in this chapter are based 
merely on incidental observations which have fallen 
into my way, without any set examination. 

If we watch the condition of somnambulism through 
its course from beginning to end, we often have occa- 
sion to notice that it is not always the same, that it 
has different qualities in different individuals and in 
the same individual at different times, and that it, 
sometimes takes the appearance of phases, even in the 
course of one fit. I saw Miss Girtler in ordinary 
somnambulism with her eyes closed and then with 
them open, her conduct being entirely different in the 
two conditions ; and then I saw in the state called 
" half awake." I observed similar changing condi- 
tions in Mrs. Lederer, who sometimes had her eyes 
open and yet could not see. 



THE SERVES IN SOMNAMBULISM. 119 

§ 92. Cases of catalepsy.— Misses Rupp, Reichel, 
and Sturmann, often became cataleptic in my presence ; 
and catalepsy is only a modified form of somnambu- 
lism. Miss Xowotny remained for hours in catalepsy, 
falling during its continuance into cramps which could 
be cured by downward passes without changing the 
condition of catalepsy. Friedrich Weidlich, while 
cataleptic, suffered for weeks with cramps. Mrs. Kie- 
nesberger fell into a similar condition with painful 
visions in which she heard everything going on about 
her, and yet lay for days unable to give the slightest 
sign of life. Mr. Weidlich also had such fits occa- 
sionally. Miss Winter in some attacks had her eyes 
open and saw with them ; in others her eyes were 
closed, but her hearing was good, and while she lay 
motionless she heard her parents weeping over her 
supposed death and speaking of her burial. Miss 
Atzmannsdorfer became cataleptic only in quiet som- 
nambulism with closed eyes, but she had various in- 
termediate conditions of deep and half-awake sleep. 
I never saw Miss Beyer in catalepsy ; her conditions 
alternated only between quiet somnambulism with 
closed eyes, and cramps. I shall not examine this 
difference further : but I may add that I never saw 
two cases of somnambulism precisely alike. This va- 
riety shows that comprehensive studies are necessary 
for a clear understanding of the various nervous ^-on- 
ditions in which somnambulism has its origin. 

§ 93. Influence of the two nervous systems.— To 

obtain a greater clearness of ideas, it will be necessa- 
ry, first of all, to separate the great ones of pheno- 
mena into two classes, one dependent on the sympa- 



120 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

thetic nerves and the other on the cerebro-spinal sys- 
tem. \^Note for tJie general reader : There are two 
nervous system in the human body ; one called the 
cerebro-spinal, consisting of the brain, spinal-marrow 
and the nerves running from them ; the other the sym- 
pathetic, which is only slightly connected with the 
brain, and has its chief centres and branches in the 
trunk near and below the stomach. Trans.] A strict 
regard for the facts, and a careful exclusion of such 
imaginings as are always pushing themselves into such 
investigations, would probably show the way how the 
knot is to be untied ; but much cool judgment and close 
observation are necessary to avoid over-estimating and 
under-estimating solitary phenomena. The slightest 
things often led me to the most important principles, 
while the most splendid phenomena were often mere 
insignificant variations of matters previously known. 

When somnambulists are in deep refreshing sleep, 
.they are corporeally quiet ; they speak but they do 
not act. Such is the pure nemetic condition, with 
negative-od predominating, for instance in cool spring 
sunshine, while lying with the head to the north, and 
after drinking negatively odified water. But when 
od-positive elements — such as moonshine, soretic in- 
fluences, and lying with the head to the west — appear, 
the sleep becomes restless ; the sleepers toss themselves 
about, speak, get up, walk out on roofs, etc. We may 
therefore draw an inference from the quietude or rest- 
leesness of a somnambulist whether his sleep will have 
a good or evil influence upon his health. 

In this manner Miss Atzmannsdorfer judged of her 
condition. When she fell asleep with difficulty and 
awoke with ease, she considered herself worse ; when 



THE NERVES IN SOMNAMBULISM. 121 

she fell asleep readily, slept soundly was not easily 
awakened, and when more upward passes were neces- 
sary to dispel her somnambulism, she said she was re- 
covering. 

In Miss Kynast, somnambulism alternated with 
swollen feet. When she had the latter, she would be 
free from the former for several weeks ; when her fits 
of abnormal somnolency came on, and they lasted from 
three to six weeks, she was not troubled with the 
swelling of the feet. 

§ 94. Cold water good for cramps. — Mrs. Cecilia 
Bauer, Mrs. Kienesberger, Misses Girtler, Zinkel, 
Beyer, and others have found out that cold, fresh 
water, and ice are good remedies for cramps and for 
light attacks of somnambulism. If they use either 
remedy quickly before the nervous excitement has 
gained the upper hand, the cure is complete. Cold 
water and melting ice have an od-negative effect on 
the stomach, and exercise their abductive influence 
against cramps on the pneumo-gastric nerve in the 
stomach. When cold water is not to be had, they find 
relief by going out in winter into the cold air. Miss 
Zinkel goes out into the snow. The inhalation of cold 
air into the lungs also operate upon the pneumo-gastric 
nerve od-ncgatively. 

§ 95. Weak acids also beneflcial. — The taste of weak 
vegetable acids has a good effect on somnambulists, 
but they must lie in small quantity. Sourish fruit and 
slightly sour salad are delicacies to the sensitive j)a- 
late. But strong aci<ls are ovor-exciting and injurious. 
Many sensitives, Mrs. Anschuctz among them, are 



122 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

thrown into severe cramps by a few drops of lemon 
juice. The influence in this case, also, is exercised on 
the pneumo-gastric nerve. The brain is the od-nega- 
tive pole of the longitudinal axis ; and when a re- 
action against it is caused by a strong acid, likewise 
od-negative, the influence is soretic, and cramp in the 
stomach is the necessary consequence. 

§ 96. Cramps in extremities painless. — The cramps 
which affect sensitives, though painful to look upon, 
are not always so painful as might be supposed from 
the severe contortions which accompany them. Indeed, 
many of them are entirely painless and are not even 
felt. When Miss Nowotny was once bringing on sleep 
by making passes over herself with a magnet, she lost 
her consciousness before laying down the magnet, and 
when she awoke she found the horse-shoe still in hand, 
fastened there with a grip so tight that she could not 
open her fingers, and it was a severe task for her 
friends to get the iron out ; and yet she did not feel 
the slightest pain. It was the same with the tonic and 
clonic cramps in the feet and arms of Misses Keichel, 
Beyer, Atzmannsdorfer, Weigand, Rupp and many 
others. A similar nervous condition appeared to pre- 
vail here as in the skin, during somnambulism, where 
no pain was felt from any pinching or pricking. 

§ 97. But painful in the trunk. — When the cramps 
penetrated to the viscera they first began to be felt, 
and now with severe pain. If they arose through the 
breast and neck into the brain, they became acute 
tortures, and some sensitives — Misses Maix, Sturmann, 
and Atzmannsdorfer, and Mrs. Kienesberger among 



THE XERVES IX SOMXAMBULISM. 123 

others — declared, in my presence, that they would 
prefer death to such suffering. It must, howeyer, be 
obseryed that the so-called cramps in the brain, where 
there are no muscles, must be different from ordinary- 
cramps, which we understand to mean involuntary 
contractions of the muscular fibres ; and the brain- 
cramps described by sensitiyes as accompanied by 
sensations as of screw-like turnings in the head brain, 
must mean something else. 

§ 98. Nerves of sensation and motion. — After thou- 
sands of experiments and observations, we have at 
last arrived at that point where we are enabled to 
reply to some questions about the relations and parti- 
cipation of the nerves of sensation and motion in 
somnambulism. Both classes take part in it, and in 
an opposition similar to that between somnambulism 
and cramp ; in the former the sensory nerves are 
active ; in the latter the motor nerves. We have seen 
that Misses Sturmann,Nowotny, Beyer, Zinkel, Kynast, 
Reichel and many others, could be pinched and wound- 
ed, touched in the eyes, tried with ammonia under the 
nose, and with loud, sudden, unexpected noises at the 
ears, without their showing any sign that these things 
had been perceived by the senses ; all the nerves of 
sensation were therefore more or less downward. But 
those somnambulists liad a clear consciousness, walked 
aVjout, worked, carried burthens, and beat people ; the 
motor nerves were therefore unaffected and completely 
under the control of the will. It was the reverse in 
cramps. Here the motor system was attacked, was no 
longer free. The muscles were driven to violent and 
unatural movements, and to involuntary cotortious and 



124 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

convulsions ; tliey were no longer under tlie control of 
the will. And since somnambulism usually accompa- 
nies cramp, so in the latter condition the sensory 
nerves are also dormant. 

We find, therefore, in the affection of the nervous 
system, in so far as its minor branches are concerned, 
again the important theoretic and practical opposition 
which appeared between somnambulism and cramp ; 
that the former arises under nemetic, the latter under 
soretic influence • and that, as a consequence, the 
nerves of sensation are attacked and deprived of their 
function in the nemetic condition, while the nerves of 
motion are attacked and thrown into involuntary and 
excessive contractions in the soretic condition. 

§ 99. The odic thrill. — The beginning and the end 
of somnambulism and cramp are marked by certain 
sensations, which do not escape attentive observers. 
When sensitives are awakening from abnormal sleep, 
and when about to be attacked by, or relieved from, 
cramp, they perceive peculiar rippling thrills, which 
run through the body. Miss Atzmannsdorfer, when 
somnambulic, often said to me, "I am about to awake 
soon ; I feel it already in my stomach." About a min- 
ute later she would say, "Now it is in my chest;" then, 
" It is in my neck, and when it comes into my head I 
shall awake." At the end of another minute she would 
be awake. What is the "it" of which she spoke ? She 
described it as a peculiar sensation, a rippling current, 
commencing in the feet, when waking was near, pass- 
ing slowly upwards, running through organ after organ 
of the body, and finally ending in the brain with wak- 
ing. It resembles the sensations caused by an upward 



THE XERVES IX SOMXAMBULISM. 125 

pass, which runs through the body in the same way, 
and when it arrives in the head also destroys the ab- 
normal sleep ; it moves like a wave over the recumbent 
body. 

With this statement we may compare Miss Zinkel's 
explanation of her feelings when I awoke her from 
somnambulic sleep by upward passes. At the first 
pass she felt a peculiar sensation running up from her 
feet through her body. It was felt most strongly at 
the pit of the stomach, where it stopped a few seconds, 
and if the passes were continued, it moved forward to 
the chest and the neck, which it cramped together ; 
then it went into the head and awakening followed as 
quick as lightning. 

These two observations made at an interval of six 
years exactly cover each other. In the one case the 
sensation was of natural spontaneous development; in 
the other it was developed by upward passes. The 
effect wrought in the latter case by artificial means 
was produced in the former by nature herself ; and in 
both cases the influence in the depths of the nervous 
system was the same. 

I made a similar observation with Miss Atzmanns- 
dorfer wlieii I first began to study these matters. I 
insert the experiment here, although it is irregular, and 
does not properly come into this place. I wished to 
try what influence a magnet, at lier feet, would have, 
and ])]accd a strong bar magnet, with its north pole 
turned towards lior, at licr feet. She felt a rip{)liiig 
current accompanied by a cool sensation running up- 
wards through her feet. She described to me how it 
ascended tli rough her legs ; now it reached her knee ; 
then over the thighs to the hips, making the abdomen 



126 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

cold as ice; through the stomach into the chest, mount- 
ing through the neck ; and she was curious to know 
how it would feel in her head, but she did not feel it, 
for when it arrived there she suddenly stopped speak- 
ing, and had sprung across into somnambulic sleep, and 
a very deep one. At that time I could not understand 
the experiment, and did not know that I should have 
observed the different sensations in the different feet. 
But the main fact forms an excellent link in this chain 
of phenomena, and shows how, by a nemetic agent 
working from below, somnambulism may be induced 
in a manner not otherwise observed. There was 
plainly here a progressive advance of somnambulism, 
which began in the feet from the near influence of the 
magnet, while the body was in the normal condition ; 
then taking possession of the abdomen while the chest 
and heck were still free ; and finally mastering the 
brain. How mechanical the whole process I 
But I return to the direct thread of my treatise. 

§ 100. The thrill of cramp. — Let us compare what 
we have just read with my notes upon the course and 
end of cramp. Miss Zinkel asserted that every attack 
of cramp passed upward from the feet towards the 
head. It first became painful in the abdomen, below 
the stomach, and afterwards in that organ, there was 
a painful movement — a worm-like creeping. When I 
placed the points of my fingers on the spot I could 
plainly feel this movement; it could be felt by any one. 
After this came stomach-ache, and when the pain be- 
came acute the wen-like swelling, described in chapter 
VI, followed. The evil passed upward to the breast, 
where it caused oppressive cramps; then into the neck, 



TTIE NERVES IX SOMNAMBULISM. 127 

where it choked the windpipe impeded respiration and 
excited keen pains. It did not go further in this sen- 
sitive, but seemed to turn about, and retreated from 
the neck to the breast, thence to the stomach, the ab- 
domen, the thighs, the feet, -and finally its departure 
through the toes was felt. This was a description of 
an attack of cramp in the non-somnambulic condition. 
She often spoke in a similar manner when I cured 
stomach cramps for her, either by downward light pass- 
es, or by sitting down near her so that our unlike poles 
came opposite to each other In such cases she would 
soon say, "It is better ; it is going off ;" she felt the 
pain passing from the stomach downward to the thighs, 
and so off through the feet. 

At another time the cramps began in the toes, which 
became cold and insensible as if asleep, but without 
pain. But as the influence ascended the legs, the pain 
began ; and from the legs it passed upwards to the 
stomach. When the affection had reached the body 
the feet were free from it ; she could not stand up and 
move her feet freely. When the cramps got into the 
breast there was a secretion of a mouthful of clear, 
colorless, tasteless water in the mouth, as happens in 
other like cases. This filling of the mouth with water 
was repeated eight or ten times, becoming gradually 
less ; it had no resemblance to vomiting, and liad none 
^ of the symptoms accompanying that act. The cramp 
then passed downwards as gradually as it ascended, 
and in the same order. There was no somnambulism 
in this case. After the attack had passed trickling 
tlirough her feet, she again became warm, very warm. 
Misses Atzmannsdorfcr and Kruegor also felt this 
trickling through the feet. They confused the passage 



128 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

out from the feet and up into the head with each other, 
as these two phenomena are often complicated with 
each other in reality. The end of the cramps was al- 
ways accompanied by this trickling current running 
downwards through the legs and feet. At the same 
time that Miss Krueger felt this sensation in her lower 
extremities she felt another similar current running 
through her breast and neck towards the head ; but 
just as she said she felt this latter current, she stopped 
talking suddenly — she awoke. 

§ 101. The odic waves of somnambulism and cramp 
compared* — Somnambulism and cramp, are therefore 
accompanied, in their rise, progress and decline, by a 
wave-like, trickling movement, which moves upwards 
from the feet to the head or downwards from the head 
to the feet through the body, the course being opposite 
in these two abnormal states. There is a perceptible 
attack, a kind of physical-mechanical course, which may 
readily be followed and may be still further analyzed. 
The beginning of spontaneous somnambulic sleep has 
not yet been observed; such observation will probably 
be made hereafter, but in regard to artificial somnam- 
bulism, it is well known that downward passes are 
accompanied by a cool trickling through the body, soon 
followed by sleep. We have seen that in waking, this 
trickling begins in the feet, passes through the body 
and on reaching the head dispels the sleep, in the same 
way as the upward passes do. On the other hand we 
have seen that in cramps the affection begins at the 
feet, and passing through the body reaches its acme of 
pain in the head, and then, in disappearing passes 
downwards again. The wave of somnambulism falls 



THE XERYES IX SOMNAMBULISM. 129 

therefore from the head to the feet, and then rises ; 
while the wave of the cramp rises upwards from the 
feet and then falls again. 

We cannot explain with complete exactness what 
this wave is, in what medium it moves, and in what 
part of the body it has its channel ; and yet when we 
see how all the five senses and the vital powers are 
affected by the odic influences, we must infer that the 
odic vision is not dependent on the eye, nor the odic 
smell on the olfactory nerve, nor the odic taste on the 
palate, nor the hearing of magnets and crystals on the 
specific nerve of the ear, but on a peculiar condition 
of the nervous system, with which all the senses are 
connected and which is the deepest foundation of our 
physical structure. And thus it appears from these 
phenomena with some show of certitude, if I have 
riglitly comprehended them, that tliat wave is nothing 
more than a change in the odic condition of the nerves ; 
the change being nemetic in the beginning of somnam- 
bulism and ending of cramp ; and soretic in the ending 
of somnambulism and beginning of cramp. 

Physiology teaches us that the seat of observation 
and reflection is in the forward lobes of the brain ; 
which are the instruments used by the spirit in the 
development of those faculties. When Floureus cut 
out the cere])rum of a dove, and Hartwig tliat of a 
dog or a cock, these animals continued to live for weeks 
and even months, but their condition was that of un- 
broken sleep. The sleep was therefore caused not by 
means of the removed cerebrum but by the remaining 
part of the brain. An odic observation which belongs 
here, was published l)y me as early as 1845 (Dymiiii- 
i(le Band I. Seite 199; 201,1: 1 found that the odic in- 



130 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

tensity was stronger in the forward part of the brain 
in the waking condition, and stronger in the back part 
of the brain in sleep : so that the activity which deve- 
lopes od is in the cerebrum during the day and in the 
cerebellum at night. Since we have learned in these 
investigations that upward passes, leading od into the 
head, dispel sleep and enliven the sensitive, while 
downward passes render the sensitive quiet and som- 
naftbule, we may infer that upward passes by bringing 
od to the brain render its upper and forward lobes ac- 
tive, and that downward passes deprive them of their 
functional powers — as though they were cut away — 
and call the lower and backward parts of the brain to 
exercise their function in sleep. 



IXTRODUCTIOX. 131 



PART 11. 

SOiTOAJ^IBlILISM AND CRAMP OF PSYCHOLOGICAL 
ORIGL\, 



CHAPTER X. 

IXTRODUCTION. 

§ 102. Explanatory remarks.— When I laid out the 
plan of this work, I determined to confine myself in it 
entirely to the demands of physics and physiology, 
and to exclude all psychical phenomena which might 
attempt to intrude. I believed I should succeed in 
keeping the two separate. I propose to examine and 
set forth the phenomena here in their purely objective 
light ; while the subjective side, which must be drawn 
from the consciousness of the sensitive was to be re- 
served for a special work of its own. But the pecu- 
liar nature of the odic phenomena where the sensitive 
acts at one moment as the object and the next as the 
subject, first as the observer and then as the observed, 
wipes out the dividing line so often, that it is impos- 
sible to preserve the separation, and I am compelled 
against my will to admit and set forth some of the 
psychical phenomena of sensitiveness, for the j)urpose 
of explaining and completing the physiological branch 



132 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

of the subject. I say " some," for I shall here insert 
only so much of the psychical phenomena of sensitive- 
ness as may be necessary to the better understand- 
ing of what has gone before, and particularly in so far 
as they serve to throw light on the origin of somnam- 
bulism and cramp. But I shall avoid all further in- 
vestigation of the mysteries of clairvoyance, predic- 
tion, sympathy, and ecstacy. I have always said that 
I consider it too soon to enter upon these matters 
before the physical laws of od and the physiological 
foundation of sensitiveness are fairly established. In 
relation to these things therefore, about which others 
have written so many books, I shall confine myself to 
brief allusions. 

§ 103. Somnambulism and cramp caused by mental 
excitementi — I have heretofore shown that sensitiveness 
is usually an inherited quality. It seems, so far as I 
have examined my sensitives on the point, to have been 
derived by all of them from their parents. But 
single events, causing a great intellectual activity may 
induce somnambulism. Thus Mrs. Leonore von Pei- 
chich became somnambulic when she had an inflamma- 
tion of the brain. A case happened in Stockholm 
where a healthy lady, sixty years of age, companion 
of Countess Loewenhjelm fell upon her head and 
fractured her skull so that trepanning was necessary. 
She became somnambulic immediately. For these 
facts I am indebted to Berzelius and the Countess of 
Loewenhjelm personally. Miss Zinkel was never 
somnambulic, and I knew her for eight years, before 
any sign of somnambulism was discovered in her. But 
after a combination of events which happened to exer- 



IXTRODUCTIOX. 133 

cise a very depressing influence on her mind, and kept 
her in low spirits for some time, I noticed that her 
sensitiveness increased extraordinarily and she was 
affected by the slightest excitations, which at other 
times would have passed unnoticed. At this period 
I observed occasional slight attacks of somnambulic 
sleep lasting from a half to a whole hour. The agree- 
able excitements of Sundays and holidays had the pe- 
culiar influence on Miss Atzmannsdorfer that they 
always made her more liable to somnambulism. The 
mental exhiliration of such days re-acted on her ner- 
vous condition. Similar observations have been made 
in clinical institutes and hospitals. Every pleasant 
surprise threw Miss Atzmannsdorfer into somnamlju- 
lism, but if the surprise was disagreeable or accompa- 
nied witli painful feelings it had the opposite influence, 
to prevent somnambulism and induce cramps. The 
general disposition of the mind in somnambulism, as 
I have remarked, is joyous. Friendship and love in 
their moderate stages, when they cause agreeable feel- 
ings, promote the somnambulic sleep. Even the little 
innocent offences against maiden modesty, such as 
unintentionally occurred in making passes, often caused 
sensitives to fall into somnambulism. We now draw 
tlie general inference tliat every increase of sensitive- 
ness, whether temporary or permanent, and all mild 
agreeable mental impressions have a tendency to in- 
duce and strengthen somnambulic sleep. 

The psychical influences upon cramps are still 

tronger. Somnanilmlism comes stealing over the 
liunian system, it soothes, comes with sleep, consists 
in sleep, and ofton in its lower stages, comes and goes 
undiscovered. Often it isralled " speakinir in dreams," 



134 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

which has long been somnambulism. But with cramps 
it is different. They announce themselves by pains, 
head-aches and stomach-aches, co]ics, general irritation, 
and insensible feet, and since they cannot be overlooked, 
are much oftener observed. I shall adduce a number 
of facts in which physiological effects have been pro- 
duced on sensitives without any influence of physical 
means, but solely by psychical causes, such as ideas 
and feelings, the effects being precisely the same as we 
produced by odic treatment as heretofore explained. 



THE INFLUEXCE OF SENSUOUS IMPRESSIONS. 135 



CHAPTER XI. 

THE INFLUENCE OF SENSUOUS IMPRESSIONS. 

§ 104. Sensitive aversion to monotony.— By a long 
series of observations I have discovered that sensi- 
tives are governed by a peculiar aversion for every- 
thing which continues or is repeated with a certain 
uniformity. I often heard, but learned only of late to 
properly value, tlie statement that a large plain pre- 
sents an unpleasant sight. When from the window 
of my residence I showed to a sensitive lady a wide 
plain, an extensive plain dotted with numerous vil- 
lages, she turned away and looking in another direc- 
tion, said " I cannot look at a plain ; it soon makes 
me sick." Miss Karhan finds it very disagreeable to 
look over a large flat ; and this feeling is so strong in 
her that when possible slie always avoids a large open 
square in Vienna, preferring to go through alleys 
rather than pass it : but when she must pass it, she 
never crosses it but walks around it, keeping her eyes 
directed toowards the liouscs on one side. Mr. Enter 
and Dr. Koller spoke to the same eflect ; they dislike 
to look at large lields, meadows, wide roads, and ponds. 
Miss Maix who first s])oke to me on this sulijcct in 
July 1814, has a similar antipathy. Miss Gcraltliiii 



136 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

avoided looking at highways, plains, and particularly 
level snow-fields. She and her brother Alfred Geral- 
dini hated even to see a large out-spread cloth. Miss 
Martha Leopolder, looking from a balcony of my 
dwelling, said the extensive landscape was beautiful, 
but would be still more beautiful if there were not so 
much water ; (the whole width of the Danube being 
visible several miles distant.) Professor von Perzer 
though an artist, the painter Ranftl, Baron Sidorowicz, 
Mr. Leopolder, Mr. von Hauer and Miss von Unck- 
rechtsberg all thought the sight of every large plain 
disagreeable. Miss Zinkel always turns her eyes away 
from a quiet pond, and from all similar objects. In 
my park, however, there is a pond which is always 
covered with ripples by the wind and this gives her no 
unpleasant feeling. I have seen persons who disliked 
to look at the level floor of a large hall, and even at 
a bare billiard table. Numerous things of this kind 
are found among sensitives. 

§ 105. Waviug grain-flelds.— I was astonished to 
hear from Miss Zinkel that the sight of a waving 
grain-field, a source of great pleasure to me, was dis- 
agreeable to her. Wlien I inquired farther, IMessrs. 
Schuler, Enter, Leopolder, and Schiller, Mrs. Heintl 
and others said the same ; when Miss Beyer sees grain 
waving in the wind, she feels as though she were being 
rocked by it, and she is so much affected that she 
would be compelled to vomit if she did not at once 
turn away. Mr. Klein is affected in the same manner. 
Miss Geraldini and Mrs. Mueller cannot endure the 
sight. Baron von Perger likes to see grain waving 
the distance, but near to him the sight is intolerable. 



THE IXFLUEXCE OF SENSUOUS IMPRESSIONS. 137 

§ 106. Revohing wagon wheels. — I often heard 
similar statements about the feelings caused by 
seeing revolving wagon wheels. Miss Geraldini, 
when in a very sensitive condition, complained that it 
was extremely unpleasant to look at the wheels of the 
wagon passing her house. Messrs. Leopolder, Klein, 
and Schuler, Misses Karhan, Zinkel, Beyer, and Mar- 
tha Leopolder, Mrs. Mueller and Mrs. Heintl expressed 
themselves to the same effect. Before my writing 
desk, is a round table the pot of which revolves easily 
in a horizontal direction. Instead of drawers there 
are number of pigeon holes in the edge of it and in 
these pigeon holes are placed notes of my experiments 
with all my sensitive friends in alphabetical order. 
This table which turns at the slightest touch, is almost 
constantly in motion. When I have sensitives whom 
I wish to try, I give the table a twirl, and the eyes of 
all the demi-sensitives and high-sensitives are at once 
turned away. Miss Zinkel gets up and leaves as soon 
as the table begins to turn. Misses Bernazke, Hek, 
and Zinkelbaier and Professor von Pcrger all turn 
their backs to it. 

§ 107. Waterfalls. — Does it appear reasonable that 
-uch a beautiful sight as a waterfall should displease 
sensitives? Miss Zinkel told me she could not com- 
]»rehcnd how people could find delight in looking at 
waterfalls : the sight for her was very unpleasant ; it 
caused warm sensation to commence in her feet and 
move upward thnnigh her legs, as though upward 
passes were being made over her, and unless she should 
turn away, slie would soon faint. Miss Karhan says 
that, to look at the continual motion of waterfalls 



138 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

makes her ill. Misses Leopolder and Klein and Miss 
Beyer feel sickish when they fix their eyes on the wa- 
ter flowing over a waste-weir. Mr. Schuler got sick 
and almost vomited when he saw the fall of the Rhine 
at Schaffhausen, and he had to turn away. Mrs. Heintl 
and Zinkelbaier would swoon if they should look long 
at a waterfall. 

§ 108. Hopping of a caged bird.— How singular 
that the movements of a bird in a cage should be an 
object of aversion for any one! And yet Baroness 
von Natorp told me, in October, 1846, that she found 
nothing more intolerable than the continual monoto- 
nous hopping of a bird in a cage from one stick to 
another. This might be a mere accidental dislike and 
without importance. But, as it appeared to belong to 
the same class with the aversion for waving grain- 
fields, waterfalls, and revolving wheels, I made further 
inquiries and heard similar statements from Miss 
Beyer, Lady Isabella von Tessedik, Madame von Eivo, 
Misses Bernazke and Zinkel, Messrs. Klein, Schuler, 
Leopolder, von Ofi'enheim, Schiller, Dr. Babel, Joseph 
Zinkelbaier, and otliers. Mr. Leopolder cannot endure 
even to hear the continuous hopping of a caged canary 
bird, much less to see it. Mr. von Siemianovski un- 
dertook to oblige a friend by keeping his monkey for 
a short time ; but the constant jumping of the animal 
was intolerable. 

§ 109. Swing of a pendulum. — The monotonous 
swing of the pendulum of a clock is unpleasant 
to demi-sensitives, and high-sensitives. Mrs. Muel- 
ler, Baroness von -Tessedik, Mr. Fichtner, Dr. Koel- 



THE INFLUENCE OF SENSUOUS IMPRESSIONS. 139 

ler, Mr. Sartorius, Alois Zinkel, Messrs. Klein, Schil- 
ler. Baron von Sidorowicz, Professor Unger, Mr. 
Yon Offenheim, Misses Geraldini, Rupp, Matilda von 
Unekrechtsberg, Zinkelbaier, Mrs. von Hauer, Mrs. 
Heintl, and Mrs. Augusta von Littrow — all described 
tlie moving of the pendulum as disagreeable. Miss 
Zinkel dislikes to see the motion of the leaves of a 
Ijook slipping through the fingers. Twirling of the 
thumbs, drumming with the fingers and feet, and 
swinging the feet when they^ndure for a little time, 
even for a minute, in the immediate vicinity of sensi- 
tives, are intolerable to them. Misses Sophia Pauer, 
Hek, Bernazke, Geraldini, Beyer, Rupp, Miss von 
Unekrechtsberg, Baroness von Tessedik, Baroness von 
Natorp, Mr. Mueller, Mr. Leopolder, Dr. Natterer, 
Dr. Machold, Professor Unger, Chevalier von Perger, 
Mr. Sartorius, Embassador Steiger, Alois Zinkel, 
Messrs. Schuler, Klein, Girtler, and Professor Schroet- 
icr, expressed themselves as out of patience with 
these things ; Dr. Koeller could not even bear the 
ticking of a watch. ^Irs. Fentl, Mrs. Kienesbergcr, 
Misses Atzmannsdorfer and Zinkel complained about 
ilie painful monotony of theljcU ringing on the tower 
of the castle Reisenberg, while they were staying with 
ine ; they would stop their ears rather than listen to 
it long. Miss Zinkel did not like to look at persons 
(lancing, because of the repetition of the regular mo- 
tions. Miss Karhan said such sights were intolerable 
to her. Mr. Fichtner finds tlie motions of machinery 
almost unendurable. Mrs. von Peichich cannot bear 
to listen to the rattle of plates, knives, etc., at the 
Ff'tting of the table or the change of courses. Misses 
Beyer and Zinkel cannot endure to have any one walk 



140 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

tQ and fro before them in a small room. I should 
never make an end if I should enumerate all the cases 
of sensitive persons more or less irritated by monoto- 
nous and repeating phenomena, the irritating influence 
being exercised sometimes' on the stomach, sometimes 
on the head, and always creating a feeling like that 
produced by upward passes. However, let us examine 
a few more cases of this kind. 

§ 110. Change of work. — When I visited Miss 
Atzmannsdorfer and found her engaged in any work, 
I observed that she did not continue at her work 
steadily like other young ladies, but that she seldom 
kept at one thing more than half an hour, at the end 
of which time she would commence something else. 
When I said to her that she would not finish much in 
this way, she replied that she could not continue long 
at one thing ; she must have a change. I said nothing 
more, but thought she had not been very well trained. 
Not long after this Miss von Weigelsberg complained 
to me that nothing caused her so much inconvenience 
as her inability to stick persistently at any one piece 
of work. When she undertook any task, she could 
not work at it more than an hour at a time, and then 
she felt an irresistible impulse to leave it and go at 
something else. Mrs. Joanna Anschuetz spoke to me 
in the same manner. Any kind of occupation soon 
became painful and finally intolerable. Miss Geral- 
dini confessed to me that it required the greatest 
mental exertion to sustain herself in completing any- 
thing. She described the change from fondness for 
work to aversion as sudden and not gradual. Mr. 
Leopolder, as mechanic, had to do much fili but [o 



THE rXFLUEXCE OF SENSUOUS IMPRESSIONS. 141 

file long at one piece was a severe trial for him. Pro- 
fessors Endliclier and Unger, Dr. Diesing, and many 
others, who have attained great learning by long and 
severe studies, are counter-evidences against the unstea- 
diness, perhaps merely capricious, of sensitive women. 
Those three gentlemen, just named, confessed to me 
that it is by strict moral compulsion that they are 
enabled to stick to their work and that they feel a 
great desire for change of occupation, which desire 
often plagues them greatly. I inquired about this 
matter of many sensitives and always received the 
same reply. Mr. Constantino Delhez cannot work 
steadily forward at any literary task ; if he cannot 
change he must at least stop frequently and attend to 
something else for a few minutes. Dr. Nied, Dr. 
Mielichhofer, Dr. Machold, Dr. Koeller, and Mr. Ficht- 
ner told me that they have times when they cannot 
finish a letter at a sitting, but must rise at least once, 
while writing, and look after some trifle. This im- 
pulse to constantly change occupation is very strong 
in Mr. Gustav Anschuetz, who cannot finish any part 
of a painting at one sitting, but must always make 
several jobs of it. Dr. Natterer, Chevalier von Per- 
ger. Baron von Oberlaender, Engineer-Major Philippi, 
Chevalier von Sidorowicz, Stephen, Kollar, Mr. Kra- 
tocliwila, Mr. Klein, Dr. Loew, Mr. Sturm, Mr. Schue- 
Icr, Mr. von OfTenheim, Mr. Sartorius, Chevalier von 
Siemianovski, Dr. Rabel, Mrs.Heintl, Mrs. Augusta von 
Lit (row, Martha Lcopokler, Baroness von Natorp, 
Madame von Hauer, Misses Ilek, Bupp, and Zinkol- 
l»aier — all assured me tliat they rould not persist long 
in any work, and that tliey felt an irrepressible im- 
pulse to change their occupation. Mias Zinkel cannot 



142 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

do any sedentary work without soon getting headache, 
and, before long, very sick. Miss Beyer, when she 
persists in any monotonous work, feels a heat in her 
head and an oppressive feeling in the stomach and 
brain, as if upward passes had been made over her. 
Embassador Steiger can overcome the impulse to 
change occupation only when he feels a strong intel- 
lectual interest in the matter in hand. It is the same 
with Miss Beyer ; however disagreeable persistance in 
a task may be, she yet conquers her aversion when she 
expects to learn something new and useful : in such 
cases, she can assume an inexhaustible patience and 
endurance. The higher spiritual excitation in this 
matter overbore the lower physical one. Mr. Peichich 
and Dr. Pfretschner cannot read long in one volume, 
but must have several books about them, and change 
from one to another. Professor Roesner cannot hold 
out long at any one kind of work ; he must have a 
change. In the course of his writing, he must often 
get up and do something else, even if only to make a 
few scratches over a violin. This love of change fol- 
lows him everywhere ; he cannot remain long in the 
company of his dearest friends, but must get up occa- 
sionally and seek solitude for a few minutes. 

The strong impulse for change of work and burning 
aversion for everything that last long is therefore uni- 
versal in sensitives, and renders high-sensitives inca- 
pable of steady labor. 

I have often bitterly complained that just I, who 
have devoted myself with thorough zeal to the study 
of sensitiveness, am entirely wanting in the faculty of 
perceiving the odic sensitives. But as I wrote the 
last paragraph it occurred to me tliat it is yet well 



THE INFLUENCE OF SENSUOUS IMPRESSIONS. 143 

ordered that I am not sensitive ; for if I were so, this 
history and tiresome task to which I have given my- 
self exclusively for ten years of my life, would never 
have been completed, but would have been abandoned 
before a quarter of the work had been done. Only 
the endurance of a non-sensitive could have suflBced to 
creep patiently through this magnetic mesmeric laby- 
rinth, to untangle its tanglements, and follow thread 
after thread of it to tlie daylight. We have tlierefore 
a counterpiece here from non-sensitiveness to streng- 
then the theory heretofore explained. 



§ 111. Standing and kneeling. — In connection with 
"work" we must consider standing and kneeling, 
which require physical and mental labor. Count 
Charles von Coronini, Messrs. Fernolendt, Rabe, Dr. 
Machold, Mr. Leopolder, Baron August von Oberlaen- 
der, Dr. Diesing, Professor Scha])us, Mr. von Offen- 
heim, Dr. Micliclihofer, Dr. Pfretschner, Mr. Kratoch- 
wila, Professor Roesncr, Mr. Sturm, Mr. Sartorius,Dr. 
Koeller, Chevalier von Sidorowicz, Mr. von Sicmian- 
owski, Dr. Natterer, Major Philippi, Professor linger, 
Mr. Schuler,Dr. Loew,Mrs. Josephine Fenzl, Mrs. von 
Peichich, Lady von Augustin, Mrs. Mueller, Misses 
Bernazke, Dorfor, Zinkelbaier, Caroline Eberman, 
Martha Leopolder, Geraldini, Karlian, Glaser and 
Caroline von Oberhiender, all, cannot bear to stand 
or kneel for a long time. Some who dislike standing 
almost as much, find a great relief when they can touch 
some firm object, if with but a single finger : thus 
spoke Mr. Onstave Anschuetz. Su))oriiiton(lonl Pauer, 
Professor Endlicher and Mr. Fichtner. Professor 



144 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

Hass, physician to the King of Sweden, finds nothing 
so trying as the standing at Court ; if he can find a 
place to support himself on a finger, it is a great relief 
to him. Dr. Neid, a passionate hunter, finds only one 
discomfort in hunting, that he has to stand still so 
long ; this elffects him so much that he is often near to 
fainting. But if he can find the leagt support upon 
which to lean, it is a great relief to him. The Swiss 
ambassador, Mr. Steiger, carries a cane for this cause 
only. The mother of Lady Sylvia von Yarady could 
not bear to stand still, and she herself has the same 
ayersion, but she feels much better if she can find a 
resting point for one of her fingers. Without such a 
support she gets a pain in the stomach. In th^ morn- 
ing she can endure standing and kneeling much better 
than in the afternoon. Mr. Delhez can neither kneel 
nor stand still ; kneeling soon gives him a pain in the 
stomach. Miss Reichel is affected in the same way by 
standing. Miss Zinkel gets a stomach-ache from 
standing, and if she persists without finding something 
to lean upon, she swoons away ; the same may be said 
of Catharine Eupp. Lady Baroness von Tessedik 
and Joseph Czapck get sick at the stomach when they 
have to stand long. Professor Endlicher could only 
endure the kneeling necessary in church ceremonies 
when he is able to rest upon his heels. Miss Reichel 
belongs to a religious order, and being required to go 
through numerous religious exercises with kneeling, 
was pained so much thereby, that she was attacked by 
severe stomach-cramps and often almost lost her con- 
sciousness. Mrs. Kienesberger, standing too long in 
my dark chamber, while I was experimenting with 
her, fell down in a swoon, but soon after awoke ; lying 



THE IXFLUENCE OF SEXSUOUS IMPRESSIOXS. 145 

doTrn itself being a remedy for her illness. Such 
falls often happened to her. 

^ § 112. Music— The impressions made upon sensi- 
tives by music are very different according to the de- 
gree of their sensitiveness. Sensitives like other 
men, are ordinarily fond of harmonious tones, and 
even more fond tlian most others, because they are 
peculiarly susceptible and all the feelings have a 
greater influence upon them. I shall not dilate upon 
this point, but merely mention a few relations which 
deserve a place here. 

Mrs. Kienesberger liked the piano-music, which she 
found in my house, but not always. It was pleasant 
to her when4ier nerves were in a quiet condition, but 
unpleasant when her nerves were unusually sensitive 
It was the same with Miss Beyer. This however may 
be said also of other diseases. But a hint is supplied 
by another observation. Mr. Klein told me that he 
was a great friend of music, but it must not last more 
than a quarter of an hour, then it gave him the head- 
ache. Mr. Schuler spoke to the same effect. And 
then all music in the high notes is disagreeable to 
many sensitives, for example Dr. Koeller, Miss Geral- 
dini, etc. However I found some sensitives who dis- 
like all music, of these Mr. Leopoldcr is one. 

§ 113. Summary.-lf we now take a general view 
of all these phenomena relating to the influence of 
sensuous impressions, and seek for general character- 
istics, we do not readily find them on the surface 
V\ here is the rr,mnion bond between a ])road plain 
waving grain-field, revolving wheels, waterfalls lu.,.- 

7 



146 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

ping birds in cages, swinging pendulums, monotonous 
thumping, steady occupation, long standing and kneel- 
ing, and the duration of music ? The picture of a wide 
plain seems to be just the opposite of that of a waving 
grain-field, and so also the swinging of the foot as 
compared with standing still ; and of drumming with the 
fingers as compared with a lengthy piece of music, well 
executed. Since the influence of these things did not 
depend on their remoteness, but. was sometimes exer- 
cised at considerable distances the cause cannot lie 
immediately in the odic radiation, whose power as 
that of a radiating principle, must be considered to 
decrease with the square of the distance. The cause, 
must then, be sought elsewhere, and it is to be found, 
I think, in subjective influences, which operate first, 
not upon the body, but upon the mind of the sensitive, 
and from there are sent out to the material organs. 
In future chapters we shall see the power exercised 
by mental impressions in the domain of od ; and in 
the phenomena just enumerated we have probably 
seen the lowest manifestations of this power. All 
these things have the common feature that they fix the 
attention, and excite it over and over again, but never 
satisfy it fairly, with one strong impression of pleasure 
or displeasure. The eye moves over a wide plain, and 
finds no resting place ; while a waving grain-field, 
revolving wheels, waterfalls, a hopping bird, a pendu- 
lum, and a thumb-mill begin their work anew every 
moment, and make no end of it, because the motion 
goes on uninterruptedly, and as the looker-on finds no 
rest, he becomes uneasy. Monotonous continuation 
in space, as in time, without rest or the attain- 
ment of the end, is the infernal torture suffered 



THE IXFLUEXCE OF SENSUOUS liTPRESSIOXS. 147 

by Tantalus and Sysyphus. It strains the attention, 
like long music, long monotonous labor, long quiet 
standing. This strain brings on sickness, stomach- 
aches, head-aches, numbness of the nerves, and swoons, 
as we have seen ; and in some sensitives it causes such 
a lukewarmness as is produced by upward passes, and 
indeed all these results belong to the same class with 
those caused by weak soretic influences acting on the 
brain. The correctness of this statement will appear 
more evident hereafter. 



148 SOMNAMBULISM A.ND CRAMP. 



CHAPTER XII. 

INFLUENCES OF MENTAL ACTIVITY. 

§ 114. Mental exertion. — Severe exertion of the 
tMnking power is much less frequent than is generally 
believed. Modern philosophy has shown that much 
of that supposed by the ancients, to be mental labor, 
is the spontaneous association of like with like in our 
thoughts, proceeding without any exertion on our part. 
The reduction of our ideas to judgments and conclu- 
sions is done often without the least effort, and takes 
place frequently as a matter necessary to our nature 
and against our will. In those cases, however, where 
thinking and the laborious combination of thought for 
the formation of new conceptions, commence, the sen- 
sitives are strongly affected. Professor Endlicher suf- 
fered from almost constant headaches in consequence 
of his intellectual labors. Superintendent Pauer 
struggles continually with pains in the head and stom- 
ach. I was led to discover the sensitiveness of Mr. 
Tirka by his frequent fits of megrim. Mr. Gustos 
Koller, when he exerts his mind, is always the victim 
of megrim. The same may be said of Mr. Fichtner, 
Dr. Natterer, Dr. Leow, Dr. Nied, Mr. von Offenheim, 
Mr. Kratochwila and all sensitive men who are re- 



IXFLUENXES OF MENTAL ACTIVITY. 149 

quired bj their occupation to engage in much men- 
tal labor. I then put questions to Miss Girtler in 
somnambulism demanding some reflection, she almost 
lost her wits, and her condition which always ended 
with a flood of tears sliowed that she was so strongly 
aff'ected that she could not endure it long. Similar 
questions put to Miss Xowotny caused the breaking 
out of clonic cramps in her arms. Mrs. Joanna An- 
schuetz often fell into cramps several hours after I had 
made visits to her and plied her with questions which 
Bet her to thinking. I have witnessed but neglected 
to note down many other similar cases wherein the 
exertion of the thinking power was always followed 
by cramp, the development of which was precisely si- 
milar to that observed where soretic influences are at 
work. If Dr. Machold, Constantino Delhez, Miss Zin- 
kel and many others exerted themselves in the dark 
chamber to sec odic lights which appeared faint to 
them, and fixed their attention for a long time on a 
single object, the efi*ort caused warmth in the head, 
(physicians call this a flow of blood to the brain) cold- 
ness in the feet, headache, and other sensations like 
those produced ]jy upward passes, and such as arc felt 
when cramp and pains of tlic stomach are approaching. 
One day I saw Mins Rcichel fall into somnambulism. 
Her physician wished to use this condition to get all 
sorts of fortune telling from her. Among other things 
he asked lier what had become of certain missing state 
bonds. This horrified me, but I could not prevent it 
without a quarrel with the stupid physician, who was 
extremely zealous to discover the thief by somnambulic 
clairvoyance. Tlie sensitive, urged by him, but unablo 
to satisfy him, sought to free herself of him by various 



150 SOMNAMBULISM AND CEAMP. 

pretexts, and at least attempted to satisfy the demands 
made upon her. After every such vain attempt, she 
invariably had an attack of cramp. In the course of 
half an hour this passed away, and then the physician 
began again with his foolish tortures, and cerebral 
cramps followed. So it went through a whole after- 
noon ; every effort in mental labor resulting in a fit 
of cramp. Mr. Kollar suffered with alternating me- 
grims and stomach aches — the former being caused 
by intellectual exertion. Even reading requires a 
mental effort more severe than sensitives are able to 
endure. When Mrs. Joanna Anschuetz and Miss Atz- 
mannsdorfer were unusually sensitive they did not ven- 
ture to take up a book without exposing themselves to 
cramps. Princess Windischgraetz could not allow 
herself the slightest pleasure in reading without having 
to suffer with cramps for it. The least reflection, the 
most unimportant intellectual effort induced cramps in 
the highly susceptible sensitives. 



INFLUENCES OF THE FEELINGS, AFFECTIONS. &C. 151 



CHAPTER XIII. 

INFLUENCES OF THE FEELINGS, AFFECTIONS AND DESIRES. 

§ 115. LoTC and maternal love. — The Superinten- 
dent of my estate at this place (castle Reisenberg near 
Vienna,) Mr. Willvonseder, had a lively little girl, 
somewhat over a year old, which a sensitive young lady 
in my house used to go to see. She loved the child 
almost passionately. When she begun to hug it, a 
thrill ran over her body at the first kiss. This thrill 
appeared to start with a lukewarm sensation from the 
solar plexus, passing lukewarm to the ganglions in the 
loins, spreading out in the abdomen, then turning round 
running with a feeling of colness to the stomach, tliouce 
to tlie cerebellum, then losing itself in the whole body 
and finally passing out through the cheeks, finger-points 
and toes. The phi in course of this sensation she de- 
scriljcd as somewhat })ainful, but she acknowledged that 
she had experienced a similar feeling when kissed by 
somebody for whom she had an affection. She thought 
that had the child been a couple of years older slie 
would not have felt these sensations. These are the 
sensuous movements of love and matqj*nal love, to be 
established and qualified ]jy further observations, but 
there is evidently an odic element in them, moving ac- 
cording to fixed laws producing corresponding results. 



152 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

This odic movement is called forth by psychological 
action. 

I have often witnessed a sensitive woman hearti- 
ly embrace and repeatedly kiss her husband, when 
she was to be separated from him for half a day, and 
then fall into violent cramps. After this had fre- 
quently happened, she had to resign herself to sup- 
press the manifestation of the tender feelings. This 
lady told me that she had to be careful not to kiss her 
own child as heartily as she wished, for fear that she 
would have cramps in all her limbs. The mental 
action was so deep and powerful that it produced a 
soretic influence on the nervous system. 

§ 116. Sensitive women usually virtuous. — What- 
ever may have been my experience in regard to the 
erotic movements in sensitives and somnambulists, I 
must yet deny the assertion, so often made, that women 
in this condition are more inclined than others to amo- 
rous thoughts. I have not found it so. On the con- 
trary, I have often found a peculiar chasteness. The 
great majority of the sensitive misses known to me, 
are modest and pure. And the cause may be readily 
understood ; it lies in the cultivation of their finer 
feelings, which were necessarily developed from their 
susceptible constitutions, and from their custom of self 
control in the innumerable little trials and vexations 
consequent upon their sensitiveness. Sensitives have 
a more delicate mental organization than non-sensi- 
tives, and this superior delicacy is impressed in all 
their feelings, thoughts, desires, and character. 

§ 117. Grieft — When anything unpleasant hap- 



INFLUEXCES OF THE FEELINGS, AFFECTIONS, &C. 153 

pened to Mr. Gustav Anschuetz, he immediately felt 
a strong headache, which last, before it had continued 
long, was reflected in the body as a pain of the stomach. 
When Dr. Machold lost a much beloved child he felt a 
severe ache in the stomach, and then a difficulty in his 
respiration. Lady Baroness Xatorp knew little of her 
sensitive susceptibility ; but when she was severely 
smitten by misfortune, somnambulism was speedily de- 
veloped in her. Time, which cures all sorrow, cured 
hers also. Miss Krueger speedily feels the effect of 
grief, in her stomach, and in disturbance of the pulsation 
of her heart. Mrs. Joanna Anschuetz suffered from child- 
hood up, with headaches ; but when in her seventeenth 
year she lost both her parents, her health was severely 
affected, headache changed to cramp in her stomach, 
back, arms and feet, and these cramps continue to afflict 
her to the present time. Miss Atzmannsdorfer, while 
living in my house, with her lively temperament, con- 
ducted herself sometimes in an impatient manner, and I 
showed my dissatisfaction by not visiting her for several 
days. This rendered her uneasy and soon brought on 
cramps. At another time she received a letter from 
her father, giving her a severe chiding. I immediately 
saw her grow ill, with attacks of headache and cramp, 
which often returned in the course of the day. Miss 
Nowotny had almost recovered from her daily fits of 
catalepsy, when unexpectedly, coldness of the feet, 
stomach jjains, headache, heat in the head, swoons, and 
tetanus got tlie control of her. We did not know the 
cause of the relapse. Finally, we learned that she had 
received a letter with some painful news, wliich slie 
took sorely to heart. This purely intellectual impres- 
sion had thrown her back into the most violent cramps. 

7» 



154 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

Miss Zinkel, when in a sickly condition, became so 
susceptible, that every little moral misfortune affected 
her very deeply. A slight contradiction, or only the 
fear that she might not have done everything that was 
expected of her, rendered her so uneasy that she was 
visited by severe fits of cramps which passed over into 
.somnambulism. 

§ 118. Mental depressions altering the odic emana- 
tions! — But the sensitives feel these subjective occur- 
rences of their own internal condition, not in this man- 
ner only : they also feel them objectively, and in regard 
to this point I have collected some noteworthy obser- 
vations about myself. More than once, while I was 
engaged in the present investigation, I was severely 
smitten by fate. When Miss Reichel was living in my 
house in 1844, I received a letter informing me of a 
large loss of property by the dishonesty of a friend. 
I said nothing to any one, but shut up the pain in my 
breast, and tried to bear myself so that no one should 
perceive what I felt. It was my custom, when I made 
my daily visit to Miss Reichel in the morning, to give 
her my hand and let her try what odic strength she 
could perceive in it. Its strength as she felt and de- 
scribed it, always accorded exactly with the course of 
my sleep, so that when she said I was odically weak, I 
had invariably passed a bad night : when she said I 
was odically strong I had always slept well. The cor- 
rectness of her perception was establislied by long con- 
tinued experiments. A few hours after I had received 
the letter with the bad news above mentioned, I went 
to Miss Reichel and let her feel my hand. She had 
felt it but a short time when she made an unusual ge- 



INFLUENCES OF THE FEELINGS, AFFECTIONS, AC. 155 

sticiilation of impatience, lier (manner ordinarily being 
quiet and reserved) and let my hand fall. She said 
there was something about it such as she had never 
felt before. It caused a severe pain in her hand and 
through her whole arm, and she would have had to cry 
out had it lasted long. An hour later I repeated the 
experiment with the same result. Six various trials 
during the course of the day gave no different result. 
The next day it was the same, except that the unplea- 
sant effect was milder. On the third day it disap- 
peared, and at this time I had regained my natural 
rest. My grief, therefore, had wrought an important 
change in me, though I, being non-sensitive, did not feel 
it ; my health did not perceptibly suffer, but the sensi- 
tive felt strongly in my odic emanations what was pass- 
ing in my mind during two days. The mental action 
therefore influenced and altered the development of od. 

My fate has, unluckily, never been free from such 
blows. The gains which I had made by toil and care 
were pitilessly swept away in the most foolish manner, 
by the most absurd events. Thus is came that, from 
time to time, I was thrown into unhappy moods similar 
to that observed by Miss Reicliel. In the following year, 
Miss Atzmannsdorfer repeatedly discovered a great 
disturbance of my odic emanations at times of mental 
depression, her statements being entirely accordant 
with those of Miss Reicliel. Unfortunately, however, 
I have no notes in regard to Miss A.'s observations, 
and therefore I can give no particulars. 

In 1847, Miss Zinkel came into my room, after I had 
been subjected to a severe vexation which still kept 
my soul tremulous. Scarcely had she stepped in, when 
she asked me whether I was ill. I was not physically, 



156 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

but mentally ill, and this had so altered my odic at- 
mosphere that she, a demi-sensitive, discovered it before 
coming near to me. She could not explain to me how 
she felt, but she said it was more unpleassant than the 
worst upward pass. 

At another time, I had been angered just before 
going to the dark chamber, where Miss Zinkel was 
awaiting me. I had scarcely set down beside her, when 
she said I must be out of humor — she could feel it in 
my presence, which produced the same feeling in her 
as a south-west wind. This was an od-positive lading. 
My whole body was charged with od, wherein positive- 
ness had the predominance, and streamed out in all 
directions. 

In November, 1851, 1 received another painful piece 
of news. I endeavored in vain to conceal my grief, 
for, though non-sensitives observed nothing. Miss 
Zinkel discovered that something was wrong, immedi- 
ately after entering my room. She said she felt it at 
a distance, and that it filled the whole room. I let her 
take my right hand in her left. She found me very 
ill, not as in physical illness, but evidently in a dif- 
ferent way. She recognizes corporeal illness by a luke- 
warm and worm-like creeping sensation in her arm, 
not extending to the stomach. Mental excitement^ 
however, affected the stomach immediately, and so 
strongly that she was not only attacked by cramp there, 
but also by the painful, worm-like crawling over her 
stomach. My passes were no longer beneficial, but 
poisonous, if I may so style them ; the odic emanations 
of my right hand were no longer cooling, but luke- 
warm, od-positive and pestilential. I had no remedy 
to cure the sensitive whom I had infected. My odic 



INFLUENCES OF THE FEELINGS, AFFECTIONS, &C. 157 

condition continued to grow weaker through the day, 
and I had not recovered until the morrow. 

§ 119. Moral suffering causes au od- positive dis- 
turbance of the odic equilibrium. — From this we may 
understand the condition of the sensitives when they 
feel a moral suffering ; it is a disturbance of their odic 
equilibrium, an abnormal excitation of odic-positive- 
ness at the cost of its negative counterweight. And 
thus it becomes intelligible, why, under such circum- 
stances, sensitives are afflicted by headache and stom- 
achache, both effects of positive and soretic disturb- 
ances of the odic equilibrium. 

In treating here of the psychical side of the odic 
phenomena we rub against the physical item of infec- 
tion. The disorders by which I was affected passed 
quickly, by bare touch to other persons, not that a pal- 
pable poisonous matter was transferred into their 
blood, but from much finer and much deeper grounds ; 
because a miglity force, intimately connected with the 
deepest vital powers, has been disturbed ; thrown from 
its balance, and its whole influence on a healthy person 
entirely changed. Here we find infection in a higher 
sphere than has hitherto been dreamed of. In these 
appearances we recognize the cause of the immense in- 
fluence exerted by moral evils on the physical orga- 
nization ; we knew, indeed, the fact, because it shows 
itself so violently in all diseases, because it creates 
diseases where none were before, and even because 
mental afflictions, unless the causes be removed, may 
lead to death : but we did not understand the cause 
wliich is here brought to light and shown to be an od- 
positive disturbance. 



158 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

§ 120. Vexation and aDger. — Discontent and anger 
work more rapidly than sorrow because they are more 
powerful. The last cases related of my own experience 
really belong under this head, but as they occurred 
outside of the sphere of the sensitives, I have thought 
best to keep them separate. 

Whenever Mr. Gustavo Anschuetz became angry or 
vexed he is immediately attacked by headache and in 
the stomach. Mr. Leopolder is attacked by stomach- 
ache in such cases. The cabinet-maker Bollman has a 
son who inherited sensitiveness and is affected with 
St. Vitus dance. The two were once crossing the 
street when they met a fellow-scholar of the boy who 
described to the father the disorder caused in the 
school by the son, whereat the latter was so vex- 
ed that he had a fit of his convulsive dancing in the 
street. 

Mrs. Krebs withdrew into almost exclusive loneli- 
ness ; and if she was spoken to in any manner, she be- 
came impatient. If she was bothered with many 
questions she grew angry and soon fell into cramp. 
Contradiction caused a full outbreak of cramps. Mrs. 
Joanna Anschuetz could be thrown into cramps at any 
moment by an absurd question repeated several times, 
as though the answer had not been understood. This 
makes her angry and the cramps come upon her at 
once, as though some upward passes had been made 
over her. This were the effects of questions alone. 
Mr. Kowats is often so busied with official duties that 
he cannot get home till late at night. The continu- 
ous expectation and mental strain, with which his wife 
awaits his return, and the numerous deceptions caused 
by other persons passing, gradually luring on an irri- 



Ds'FLUEXCES OF THE FEELINGS, AFFECTIONS, &C. 159 

tated excitement, which then breaks out in violent 
cramps of the stomach. 

Miss Atzmannsdorfer went one day from Castle 
Keisenberg to Vienna. There somebody spoke ill to 
her of me, and slandered me. Since she knew the 
falsehood of the charges made against me, she took my 
part and defended me against unjust attacks. With 
her lively temperament, perhaps she did this too zea- 
lously, and so she got into a quarrel and then became 
angry. The consequence thereof was that after her 
return she fell into a cramp-like fit of weeping and sob- 
bing, which could with difficulty be cured. Swoons 
and cramps followed each other through the next day 
and niglit, accompanied by "sleeping" fingers and feet, 
and ending in somnambulism. Every strong impres- 
sion of anger, care and joy speedily caused headache 
in Mr. Ebermann. Grief, anger and vexation afifecte^l 
Mr. Steiger's stomach, and brought on cramp-like move- 
ments, which are followed by peculiar attacks pro- 
ceeding from the stomach, and producing cramp-like 
manifestations lasting sometimes twenty-four hours. 
These attacks are accompanied by abundant secretions 
of saliva ; the affection then passes to the back part 
of the head, where it creates a severe pain, which next 
moves to the forehead. Every fit of vexation and 
anger calls out pain of the stomach in Mr. Kollar. 
An insignificant inshlt to Miss Reichel rendered lier 
sleepless, and then brought on cramp. Miss Beyer is 
always severely affected in the stomacli — that is, in the 
solar [)lexus — by anger, vexation and (juarreling. Her 
arms become heavy as if lamed, her logs refuse to bear 
her weight, and her head becomes hot. Then out 
breaks of cramp, accompanied by somnambulism, fob 



160 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

low and last till the next day. Her frequent cramps 
after every vexation date from a certain occasion when 
she fell out with a person who had previously enjoyed 
her high esteem, the quarrel throwing her into violent 
paroxysms of cramp. She is, like many sensitives, 
easily angered, and this always produced evil effects 
in her somnambulism and cramp. Anger produced in 
Miss Beyer that other soretic odic effect of the swel- 
ling over the stomach with the worm-like crawling in 
it. Miss Kienesberger was thrown into cramp by 
every fit of vexation, or anger. When much offended, 
long attacks of somnambulism, with alternating cramps, 
follow, sometimes lasting weeks or months. Every 
vexation had the same influence on Miss Zinkel as so- 
retic treatment. Any loss in her domestic affairs caused 
by the carelessness of the servants under her was fol- 
lowed by an excitation of her sensitive susceptibility, 
and by pain in the stomach. Once she was irritated 
by a refusal of her servants to obey orders, and im- 
mediately there was a pressing pain in the solar plexus, 
which she called a stomachache. After such a fit she 
could not eat for a whole day, nor sleep, and the pain 
allowed her no rest. It she succeeded in going to 
sleep, she was beset by painful dreams, which caused 
her to weep, and when she woke up she found herself 
bathed in tears, and she was so affected that these con- 
tinued in an involuntary and cramp-like flow. Then 
came a feeling of relief, such as follows the disap- 
pearance of cramp. 



§ 121. Violent excitement weakening odic percep- 

tioni — A noteworthy feature of physical influence on 



INFLUENCES OF THE FEELINS, AFFECTIOXGS, &C. 161 

sensitiveness is the depressing eflcct often caused by 
violent excitement. In the last paragraph I gave an 
example of Miss Beyer, in whom a fit of anger caused 
a loss of sensibility in the upper and lower extremities. 
Something similar was observed in Miss Zinkel. I 
wished one day to arrange some new chemical prepa- 
rations that I had just received, in their od-chemical 
order, which has been discovered by sensitives in simple 
substances by the touch. To my astonishment her sen- 
sations were inexact and unsteady, as I had never 
found them. On inquiry I learned that she had been 
cheated out of a gulden in a very x)ffensive way. She 
was compelled to swallow her indignation at the 
rascality because the rascal, whom she knew, pretend- 
ed to be^ very honest, and she could not get proof 
against him. This suppression of her anger had such 
a peculiarly intense effect on her nervous disposition 
that the susceptiMlity for od was lost for a day, and 
she could not distingnisch substances by it. This ap- 
peared still ])lainer in another case. She was very 
angry at sometliing tliat liad liappencd in tlie house, and 
indeed, sensitives generally liavc irritable dispositions. 
Soon after this fit of anger I wished to make some ex- 
periments of feeling with her, but her perceptive power 
was almost gone. At the same time, she showed me 
that her hands were moist, clammy, and swollen, as 
when subjected to soretic influences, sucli, for instance, 
as liolding copper in tlieliaiid, or a ])art-pass down the 
arm, stopping at the wrist. Another lit of anger, at 
the disobedience of a servant, rendered her almost 
insensi])le to odic sensations ; she scarcely felt my pass- 
es and hands; her feet became insensible, and her 
logs heavy as lead. Anger, therefore, had an effect 



162 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

like a disease, and threw the whole body into an od- 
positive soretic state. 

§ 122. Ventinsj anger a relief for odic illness. — It 

has appeared on various occasions, that, when Miss 
Zinkel can speak out her anger, and get an explanation 
or satisfaction, and thus discharge herself of her pas- 
sion, more or less pain and cramp in the stomach fol- 
lows, and these go away soon, or can be readily driven 
off by nemetic passes. In such cases, an outbreak of 
tears is peculiarly beneficial to her, and sometimes it 
completely cures the whole odic timorousness that op- 
presses her. But when she cannot express herself, and 
must swallow her wrath, the consequences are always 
worse for the stomach ; that is, for the solar plexus, 
probably the whole sympathetic nerve [Reichenbach 
gives it the expressive name of BaucJigeJiirn, the 
brain of the belly], for then she -might be certain 
of a severe cramp of the stomach, passing thence, 
through the preumogastric nerve to the breast, dis- 
turbing everything with a painful, crawling motion, 
and rising into the neck, where it cramped the throat, 
and threatened suffocation. This was a progress 
which I had often observed in greater or less strength 
in high-sensitives, and which, when it entered the 
brain, caused the most fearful cases of opisthoto- 
nus and cramps of the spinal marrow. When I was 
near, the attacks were not at all dangerous ; I 
loosened the cramps by a few nemetic passes ; yes, it 
was enough that I placed my right side to the sensi- 
tive's left, and laid my hand on liis stomach, and in less 
than a minute tlie cramps gave way and all the fearful 
violence of the attack was stilled. All those purely 



IXFLUEXCES OF THE FEELINGS, AFFECTIONS, &C. 163 

odic phenomena are produced by mental influences 
alone. In one case of this kind, induced by anger, I 
gave Miss Zinkel some nemetic downward passes to 
cure a commencing cramp of the stomach. She felt 
the influence more strongly than usual ; my passes felt 
like ice passing over her, her arms were covered with 
goose-flesh, but the cramps were dispelled. In these 
phenomena, and they cannot otherwise be conceived, 
there are many phases of stronger and weaker excita- 
bility, which rise and fall, above and below the ordi- 
nary average condition, according to the psychical 
moods, and their intensity ; such as the necessity of 
smothering rage, or giving free course to it, and so 
forth, the more minute calculations of which matters, 
I refer to skilful physicians, for whom a special knowl- 
edge of these things has a new interest. 

§ 123. Cramps caused by fright. — Vexation and 
anger are moods wherein the mind is directed towards 
attack. Fright is a diflerent mood, wherein the 
thoughts are turned towards self-protection ; and it 
also sliows a strongly marked odic influence upon the 
physical organism. Miss Nather, a native of Basle, 
was in that city with her parents when the place was 
bombarded. The anxiety and destitution which she 
saw around her, and the bombs exploding in her house, 
tlirew licr into such a fright and so sliattercd lier 
nerves that she never recovered. She became soni- 
nainbulic, clambered as a cliild a])f)ut on roofs in the 
moonlight, and passed her whole life in struggles with 
cramp and attacks of nervousness. When, in May, 
1844, I visited Miss Sturniann, it often happened that 
storms passed across the sky. Not the li-litiiinir. but 



164 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

every thunder-clap, threw her into cramp and cata- 
lepsy. Once she had just taken a little board into 
her hand from mine, when a moderate thunder-clap 
brought on such cramps that it was impossible for me 
to take the board away, although I exerted all my 
strength ; but at the end of a few minutes, her cramps 
relaxed, and the board fell by its own weight. 

On one occasion she was in somnambulism when a 
storm was passing. At every thunder-clap she had 
clonic cramps of the arms. At another time a distant 
firing of cannon was heard in the house, and at every 
shot her arms were cramped. Even any sudden noise, 
such as the slamming of a window-shutter or a door, 
caused cramps after a lapse of a few minutes. Miss 
Catherine Rupp became cataleptic when she heard 
thunder. The falling of a broom upon the floor was 
sufficient to induce cramp and catalepsy ; so also the 
slamming of a door, or an outcry, or an abrupt calling 
of her own name ! Since the influence was the same 
as when she handled copper kettles or brass mortars, 
or a door-lock, or an iron pump-handle, it is plain 
that the fright effected her in the same manner as 
an od-positive reaction in a soretic direction. I was 
often witness of similar occurrences in Miss Sturmann ; 
a boy bawled out in an adjoining room, and she was 
beset by clonic cramps and catalepsy. In her dwell- 
ing, in Ferdinand street, in Vienna, the steam-whistle 
of the distant locomotives on the Southern Railway, 
may be heard ; but I liad hardly noticed the sound 
before the sensitive girl was in a clonic cramp and 
unconscious with catalepsy. Miss Reicliel often stum- 
bles, and every fall causes a fright, resulting in som- 
nambulism and cramp. 



INFLUEXCES OF THE FEELINGS, AFFECTIONS &C. 165 

§ 124. By outcries. — Mrs. Cecilia Bauer has all her 
life Ijeen afflicted with stomach-ache caused by innu- 
merable little frisrhts. I saw such a case in my own 
house. Misses Atzmannsdorfer and Amelia Krueger 
were in two different rooms, when the former had an 
attack of cramp, for some unknown cause, and she 
uttered a cry. Miss Krueger heard it, and she was 
overcome by cramps and somnambulism. Miss Atz- 
mannsdorfer was for a time so sensitive to frights that 
every loud noise, the moving of a chair, the closing of 
a door, would induce cramps of her arms and legs. 
The first time that Miss von Weigelsberg was afflicted 
with cramps of the tongue, the attack was caused by 
the sudden view of an unexpected conflagration ; after 
that any little fright brought it on. Mr Lippich, the 
regular professor [ordinarius] in the clonical depart- 
ment of the University of Vienna, was the physician 
of ^fiss Atzmannsdorfer, and was interested in her 
sufferings. She had a great respect and liking for 
him. While she was staying in my house, Lippich 
died unexpectedly. The news of his death, though I 
broke it to her gradually, struck her so violently that 
she fell into cramps and somnambulism. The strange- 
ness of my dark chamber rendered Miss Winter un- 
easy and threw her into cramp. Miss Martha Leo- 
polder was afflicted with megrim after every fright. 
Mrs. Kienesbcrger, under similar circumstances, suf- 
fers immediate attacks of severe head-ache, cramps 
and other nervous afflictions. Every fright, affecting 
Mr. Gustav Anschuetz, is felt by him in head and then 
in his stomach. A fright always gives a severe head- 
ache to Mrs. Ebermann ; Em])assador Stciger and Mr. 
Custos Kollar suffer stomach-ache after every fright. 



166 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

Baroness Pauline von Natorp knew nothing of her 
sensitive condition until she was shocked by repeated 
severe frights. From that time forward she became 
a sleep-walker and suffered with cramps, and did not 
recover until after the lapse of years. Miss Zinkel feels 
every fright first in the pit of the stomach, on the left 
side, that is, on the left lobe of the solar plexus. This 
affection on the left is significant, because it indicates 
that the fright reacts in an od-positive direction, where 
it attacks. Thence the cramping movements spread 
upwards to the breast and towards the head, thence 
to the arms and feet, and finally to the toes and finger- 
points, which last are afflicted with a peculiar pain. 

At another time a bell was rung very near to Miss 
Zinkel's ear, and as this was done rather violently it 
was sufficient to give her such a fright that she was 
soon beset with stomach cramps and then with breast 
cramps. Some years later, when her sensitiveness had 
increased to somnambulism, her impressibility for 
fright was so great that she fell into clonic cramps 
when the iron of her stove snapped at cooling ; yes, it 
sometimes happened that when she was sitting near 
me, she was startled by an unexpected movement of 
my hand, by an accidental tone of a word in conversa- 
tion, and soon she was the victim of general cramps, 
which usually terminated in somnambulism. 

§ 125. Odic perception weakened byfrigbt. — A quick 
awakening out of common sleep may be reckoned 
among the feelings of fright, if only in the grade of 
surprise. In Mrs. Kienesbergcr this was sufficient to 
bring cramps upon her. To wake her quickly was to 
awaken her sufferings also. I have already stated in 



IXFLUEXCES OF THE FEELINGS, AFFECTIONS, &C. 167 

this chapter how Miss Zinkel by anger had lost her 
odic susceptibility for a short time : and now I will 
give a fact to go alongside of that. Miss Zinkel was 
in my dark chamber buried with experiments relating 
to the odic light. Timid as she is, she was much 
frightened by the fall of a bar-magnet to the ground. 
Up to this time she had seen the odic light very well; 
but after that she was od-blind, and saw no more 
flames than I did. This lasted about a minute ; then 
her faculty of vision returned to her again. The ex- 
citement had neutralized her sensitiveness, for some 
moments, in an unexplained manner. There are, there- 
fore, conditions caused by mental excitement in which 
the feeling as well as tlie vision of sensitives for od, is 
destroyed. ♦ 

§ 126. Cramp caused by jealousy.— This scourge of 
human society plays its mean part also among sensi- 
tives. Of many examples which I have witnessed I 
can give only one Iiere. Miss Beyer, who has a deep 
character, Iiad a bitter jealousy in regard to a love 
affair. She told me that the first developments of her 
cramps was occasioned by the unfaithfulness of a lover, 
which aflected her so severely that when she made the 
discovery she fell into the most painful cramps. These 
moderated after some time, but broke out anew with 
every new mental storm, and continue to afflict her to 
the prosont dny. 

§ 127. By faii-hlni!:.— As often as Mrs. Kienosberger 
laughed \iolontly she could be certain of an attack of 
cramp. 1Mio same cause always produced the same 
eflect in Miss Rcichel. Miss Ziuk^'l. aftor a hearty 



168 SOIVIMNABULISM AND CRAMP. 

laugh, gets cramps in the stomach. Once, while laugh- 
ing violently, I saw her attacked by cramps in the 
calves of the legs. At another time I saw a lively, 
healthy laugh pass over into a frightful laughing cramp, 
wherein, though suffering severe pain, she had to laugh 
on automatically, until I succeeded, by downward 
passes, in subduing it. It is well known that laugh- 
cramps are frequent among sensitives. An instructive 
case happened with Miss Atzmannsdorfer. She lay 
a-bed in somnambulism and was lively and talkative 
as usual. She told me many amusing incidents in her 
life, and made many gesticulations and laughed hear- 
tily. In the midst of this lively scene I saw her 
become serious, the word died on her lip, she lay down 
on her side and in reply to my question she answered 
only that she feared a cramp in her throat. After the 
lapse of three minutes, cramps had broken out in her 
arms, feet, back, body and neck. I made downward 
passes over, but a painful quarter of an hour passed 
away before I became master of the cramps. A deep 
somnambulic sleep then followed and lasted several 
hours. The only cause of this attack was her laugh- 
ing and excitement in somnambulism. She knew well 
from experience what the result would be. At another 
time I shall return to this beautifully regular develop- 
ment, which is seldom seen in its entire course. 

§ 128. By joy • — Sensitive persons are not even per- 
mitted to enjoy, undisturbed, a pleasant surprise. Miss 
Zinkel received a letter informing her unexpectedly, 
of a very agreeable piece of news. Immediately after- 
ward, she was attacked by a severe stomach-ache, such 
as she had often had on previous occasions when she 



IXFLUEXCES OF THE FEELINGS, AFFECTIONS, &C. 169 

had received good news. Another time she was pre- 
sent on Christmas eve, when a number of presents 
were made to some children. She took such a lively 
interest in the joy of the little ones, that she soon 
afterward fell into cramp and somnambulism. Once 
upon a time she heard some news which gave her great 
joy, and she was then immediately attacked by cramp, 
which did not attack her simultaneously in all her 
limbs, as cramps usually do, but only in the left leg, 
from the hip joint to the toes, which last were distorted. 
This points to the od-positive, soretic influence of men- 
tal excitements upon the organic functions, and is a 
delicate hint in confirmation of the views heretofore 
expressed. Misses Reichel, Atzmannsdorfer, Maix, 
Sturmann and others also told me of cases wherein 
joyous emotions brought on cramps. 

§ 129. By surprise.— When I visited Miss Zinkel, 
on her sick bed, in her most susceptible period, it often 
happened that her whole body was attacked by 
cramps. It often happened, that wlien she had passed 
the whole night without cramps, and I came to her 
bed in the morning, and greeted her, she forthwith 
was beset by cramps in her breast and neck, with 
opisthotonus, which changed to somnambulism. The 
only cause of these attacks was the lively and not un- 
pleasant emotion called forth Ijy my entrance into tlie 
room. Miss Beyer was afflicted in the same manner 
when she was in her most sensitive })eriods. Wliile 
she was going through the streets, she would often fall 
down suddenly as if she were epilepetic, which she was 
not. The mere surprise given her ))y the unexpected 
sight of a friend, or by the rapid aj)proach of some 

6 



170 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

one toward her, sufficed to fill her body with cramps. 
She visited me first in the country, and fi)und there a 
large black dog not far from my dwelling. The sight 
of him threw her into cramps, in which she fell down, 
and then became somnambule. But the dog was only 
of cast iron. 

§ 130. By mental excitement* — Mrs. Kienesberger 
loves the theatre, particularly tragedy. But when she 
ventures to give herself up to this enjoyment, she has 
to atone for it bitterly. When she gets home after 
the play, she has cramp-attacks severe and lasting in 
proportion to the liveliness of the emotions excited by 
the performance. Miss Zinkel had fears for the safety 
of an absent lady. One day when she was in a very 
susceptible condition, she was speaking to me of this 
person. While speaking with emotion, she fell into 
somnambulism. I supposed this to be accidental, paid 
no attention, and staid with her till she waked up. 
The conversation again turned upon the same person 
and she again became somnambulic. When she soon 
again recovered to waking consciousness, I led the 
conversation, a third time, upon that person, and som- 
nambulism mastered her again. The condition of this 
sleep was such that symptoms threatening cramps were 
seen at every moment. 

§ 131. By emotions of memory. — That simple pictures 
of fancy, recollections, impressions of pleasure and dis: 
pleasure, in healthy somnambulism as well as in the 
ordinary consciousness, should so afi"ect the sensitives, 
susceptibility as to produce cramps and similar con- 
ditions would scarcely be credible, if there were not 



IXFLUEXCES OF THE FEELINGS, AFFECTIONS, &C, 171 

facts to prove it. Miss Zinkel knows a person who 
has treated her in a very ungrateful manner, and whom 
she bitterly detests. Whenever I unexpectedly men- 
tioned his name, she felt attacks of pain and cramp in 
the stomach in less than half a minute. It happened 
to her, that somebody enquired about relatives with 
whom she was not on a friendly footing, and immedia- 
tely she had a cramp in the stomach. Once she saw 
a child in great danger ; she related the circumstance 
to me a year later; and the mere recollection affected 
her so much that she broke out into cramps, in her 
breast, arms, and legs, with opisthotonus in her whole 
back. In times of such a susceptible state of health, it 
was necessary that every word used in conversation 
with her should be weighed, lest a careless expression 
should call forth cramps and somnambulism, which 
would break out so violently that while lying on the 
floor she would move about convulsively and make the 
bystanders fear that she was about to die of suffoca- 
tion. 

§ 132. By emotions in dreams.— A case almost comic 
in its nature, is sufficiently characteristic to deserve a 
place here. 3iliss Zinkel had charge of the sale of the 
ripe fruit of an orchard and was busied in having it 
guarded, gathered, measured and taken to market. 
While thus occupied she dreamed one niglit, while in 
ordinary sleep, that she liad gone out into the orchard 
and cauglit a tliicf there stealing the fruit. She went 
up to him, upbraided him, and in hor anger became so 
much excited, that while dreaming she felt the approach 
of stomach-ache, and Ijcing awakened by it, she felt a 
crawling moving and a swelling over her stomach, and 



172 POMXAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

cramp-like sensations in all her limbs. Sucli cases are 
not rare with her ; they occur frequently. 

§ 133. Summary. — All these influences produced by 
the intellectual movements of love, grief, vexation, 
anger, fright, jealousy, laughing, joy, surprise, emotion, 
and the imagination, agree to a wonderful extent in 
causing in low, demi and high sensitives, the same ef- 
fects which are produced by soretic-odic treatment, 
passes towards the head, lying with the head towards 
the west and south, grasping of od-positive sub- 
stances with the left hand, such effects namely as 
head-aches, stomach-aches, swoons, cramps and the 
phenomena of this class ; and these effects are pro- 
duced in the same manner as by the generators of 
positive-od. 

And thus we arrive at the following conclusions in 
regard to the influences of the sensuous impressions, 
mental excitement, and the feelings, affections and de- 
sires heretofore treated of: — 

All these psychical movements, which, according to 
physiological views, are supposed to proceed oidivards 
from the nervous centre, when viewed on the odic side, 
occur and express themselves in the conceptions and 
actions of the sensitives in the same manner as when so- 
retic and od-positive influences are brought to hear on 
the brain. Inferring, that like effects wider like circum- 
stances must have had like causes, we have every reason 
to assume that all these intellectual movements ivere ac- 
companied by an accumidation of positive od in the 
brain ; probably so far as matter could participate in 
them, lucre composed immediately of it. A development 
of positive od in tJw brain then accomj^anies and is 



INFLUENCES OF THE FEELINGS, AFFECTIONS, &C. 173 

caused by all these mental actions, and the activity of 
the human mind appears to be immediately connected 
vnth odic movements: and the od which toe have 
hithefi'to seen active in the physical woiid stejjs for- 
ivard noiu also as a felloic-laborer in the workshop of 
thought. 



174 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 



CHAPTER XI. 

MENTAL EXALTATION IN SOMNAMBULISM. 

§ 134. Odic perception acute as sensitiveness is high. 

— I have sliown and proved by a thousand facts that 
sensitives are provided in their sensual organs with 
faculties entirely wanting in non-sensitives. They see, 
feel, hear, taste, smell, perceive through muscular and 
vital senses, and in this way receive sensuous impres- 
sions entirely denied to others, as light and color are 
denied to the blind. I have further shown that these 
perceptive faculties become more acute as the sen- 
sitiveness rises, and that the higher a man's sensitive 
susceptibility, the more numerous and plain his per- 
ception of odic phenomena, so that a low sensitive may 
be compared to a short-sighted person, and a high 
sensitive to a long-sighted one ; where tlie one sees 
only a gray mist or a liglit smoke, the other distin- 
guishes a clear li^ht, an odic flame and the colors of 
the rainbow. Should not this perceptive power also 
increase with the exaltation of sensitiveness ? Should 
not the condition of somnambulism and cramps develop 
still higher powers of perception ? After wliat we 
know already this would no longer be wonderful, but 



MEXTAL EXALTATION IX SOMNAMBULISM. 175 

on the contrary it would be surprising, and yiolative 
of logical reasoning if this were not the case. He 
who has studied the physical and psychical operations 
of od must foresee, with tolerable confidence, and must 
expect that the phenomena in somnambulism are not 
merely physical, but that they also ascend psychically 
higher than in the ordinary waking consciousness of 
the sensitive. If, therefore, there be in somnambulism 
some phenomena which people call miracles, because 
their causes are not clearly understood, we must not 
be surprised or ofi'ended if the physicist is sober and 
cold-blooded but cautious and thoughtful. Berzelius 
says : "The chain of knowledge always ends in some- 
thing incomprehensible." Explanation and comprehen- 
sion can nowhere enter the infinite ; every investiga- 
tion must terminate when it reaches the incomprehen- 
sible. Care must be taken not to mix the limits of the 
comprchcnsiljle with those of the incomprehensible, 
and to establish the facts precisely where the one ends 
and the other begins. I shall now go this road, and 
lead the reader along these limits for a short time. 

§ 135. Somnambulic prophecy.— In the first place 
let us hear two case.-, tlie facts of which I myself wit- 
nessed, and which I will set down here one after an- 
other. Miss Nowotny had regularly, every evening, an 
attack of catalepsy, to whicli somnambulism sometimes 
joined itself. In such a condition she told me, on the 
19th of March, that her cataleptic fits would continue 
five weeks longer, and that she would have the last 
one on the 27th of April ; till then they would grow 
shorter every day, and on the last day tlic fit would 
last only four minutes ; and then she would be free 



.176 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

from them forever. Then she added that the headache, 
^with which she had been nuinterruptedlj afflicted for 
eight full years, would continue beyond that day, but 
would end on the 8th of May, and then she would first 
have the pleasure of feeling herself free from pain. In 
fact, I soon saw, in the daily decrease of the duration 
of the attacks, the fulfilment of the prediction, for 
every day they became shorter. I had kept the 27th 
of April in my mind, and on that evening I was at her 
house early. The attack commenced and I looked at 
the minute hand of my watch. When four minutes had 
passed the catalepsy and cramps ended and she waked 
up. I went the next and the following days', but the 
attacks did not come. Nevertheless the headache re- 
mained. I continued to visit her daily. With deep emo- 
tion I learned on the 8th of May that the headache 
had not visited her during the day ; and the joy over 
it enlivened and rendered happy the whole house. It 
might be said that Miss Nowotny had probably played 
a little comedy and duped me. But no one knowing 
the circumstances would have said that ; though I 
should still admit the validity of such an objection if 
this fact stood alone. But it is corroborated and con- 
firmed by hundreds and thousands of similar cases 
which I have observed, and I have made special 
mention of this single one only because of its well- 
bounded clearness. In this case we have a striking 
proof that somnambulists, under conditions unknown 
to us, possess the faculty, entirely wanting in non-sen- 
sitives, of foreknowing events many weeks before their 
occurrence, and with a precision exact even to a mi- 
nute. That was one case. 



MENTAL EXALTATION IN SOMNAMBULISM. 177 

§ 136. False somnambulic predictioo. — And now 

for the other. Miss Kynast had sufiered for years with 
somnambulic attacks, and like Miss Xowotny, in these 
slumbers she told, always correctly, when she would 
have her next attack and how long it would last. 
These predictions were fulfilled so accurately that they 
came to have a common character, and everybody in 
her vicinity was satisfied that such a prediction was 
almost equivalent to a certainty. When somnambulic, 
she also possessed in a high degree the faculty of fore- 
telling the phenomena of her disease. One day she 
came to visit me, and as I was occupied at the time 
she stopped among my servants, and there went into 
the somnambulic sleep. The cook now got hold of her, 
and put all sorts of questions to her. Among other 
things she asked about a trip which she (the cook; 
intended to make to Prague, whether it would be a 
fortunate one and uninterrupted by accidents. The 
sleeper said that all would go well, save that an acci- 
dent would happen at the bridge of Prague, but she 
would escape uninjured. She then asked further about 
the fate of the child of one of the superintendents of 
my estate — which child was very ill — whether it 
would recover or die of that illness, and whether she 
could not tell something that would cure it. The som- 
nambulist replied that she saw the child (tlie superin- 
tendent's dwelling was about 800 yards from Castle 
Reiscnbcrg, and separated from it by a park) ; it was 
dangerously ill, but it would recover ; and then she 
prescribed how it should be treated. It so hapj)ened 
that the cook had not the remotest idea of going to 
Prague, and so far from the suporintondont's child 
boine ill. he did not even have a child and there \va& 



178 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

not a child about the place. The somnambulist had 
thus been entrapped by the ideas which the questioner 
suggested ; she had blindly believed and had made 
prophecies which were not only untrue, but for which 
there was no foundation. She had merely dreamed, 
and spoken her nonsense out as many persons do every 
night. 

In both these cases, to which I shall hereafter add 
some others, we have astonishing and exact fore-knotd- 
edge side by side with absurd baseless guesses both in 
somnambulic sleep ; the true predictions being made 
by the somnambulist about herself; the false ones 
about other people. 

Somnambulic sleep is not therefore in its very na- 
ture a condition, wherein the human mind is able to 
foreknow the future ; and all assertions to this effect 
and extent, are evidently false. Nevertheless there 
are special conditions of somnambulism wherein the 
human mind can possess a foreknowledge wanting to 
persons not somnambulic. Experience has not yet learn- 
ed to distinguish this latter class of conditions, and 
between this and the other class lies the dividing line 
of the comprehensible and the incomprehensible. 

§ 137. Od generated by miiscular force. — Let us 

now consider some cases where the mental exaltation 
of sensitive persons goes still further and extends 
beyond the limits of our globe. 

Mr. Dubois Reymond has proved by some beautiful 
experiments tliat electricity is generated when our 
muscular force is exerted and whenever I liave found 
that od is generated at the same time. If I placed the 
end of a porcelain wand in Miss Beyer's left hand and 



MENTAL EXALTATION IN SOMNAMBULISM. 179 

held the other end in my right, after a few minutes she 
felt only the common coolness of unlike od. But if I 
grasped the wand tightly with my hand the coolness 
changed to cold, which shivered through her whole 
frame : and if I took tie wand in my left hand, the 
ordinary lukewarmness of the like od changed to a 
heat when I exerted myself by grasping the wand 
with all my force. The same sensations were perceived 
by a number of other sensitives. These facts, observed 
on many different occasions, and in many diflcrent 
ways furnished tlie proof that the exertion of muscular 
power is accompanied by a development of od. 

If instead of holding a wand between myself and 
the sensitive, I stretched out my empty hands towards 
him at a distance of four or five steps, he felt the odic 
influence usually felt at that distance ; but if, while 
thus holding out my arms and hands I put the utmost 
tension possible on the muscles, the sensation produced 
on the sensitive was entirely different. Chevalier 
Sidorowicz found that my right arm which at first sent 
out a cool stream of od towards him, sent out a cold 
stream when the muscles were made rigid, and besides 
exercised an irritating influence impelling him to strain 
his muscles in the same way. Misses Zinkel and Beyer 
spoke to the same effect. Miss Geraldini was so mucli 
affected by rigid arms held out at her that she wanted 
to relieve herself by gnashing her teeth. When I 
stretched out my left arm alone at her, it cramped up 
the extensor of her left hand and tlirew the hand 
open: and when I pointed my right hand at her left 
side, she felt the same feeling in the flexors, and the 
fingers were doubled in together. The tension of my 
muscles was involuntarily irritated bv the sensitive. 



180 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

With Miss Beyer the same treatment produced the 
same eiffect. When I suddenly strained to the utmost 
the muscles of my arms, hands and fingers pointed 
towards her, she immediately felt the cool odic emana- 
tions of my right hand directed at her left side become 
stronger and cooler than before. Though five steps 
distant from me she felt an almost irresistible desire 
to strain her muscles also, and to grasp or press some- 
thing tightly, in short she felt a transfer of what was 
passing in my mind and body to her own. It was the 
same with Miss Zinkel. First I made a slight down- 
ward pass with my right hand at a distance of four 
steps, for the purpose of putting everything at rest. 
Then I stretched the same hand out towards her with 
a tension of all my muscles. She felt a cold sensation 
accompanied by an irritation impelling her to exert 
her strength. She felt as though she would like to 
have a stick of wood and beat me with it. I then 
pointed my left hand at her with the muscles all in 
tension. She said the sensation was much more dis- 
agreeable and irritating than from the other hand. 
Finally I pointed both arms at her at once ; this ir- 
ritated her so much that she felt a string desire to 
assault me, but at the same time she had pain in the 
stomach. 

§ 138. Experiment with a mirror,— I countertested 
this experiment by another with a looking glass. It 
was a large dressing mirror, and stood on rollers. I 
moved it into the doorway, between two rooms, so that 
when Mr. Klein and myself were one in '• room 
and invisible to each other in a direct line, on account 
of the wall, we could yet see each other in the glass, 



MENTAL EXALTATION IN SOMNAMBULISM. 181 

at an angle of seventy degrees. Each stood four steps 
distant from the glass. When I raised may arm to- 
wards the image of Mr. Klein in the glass, he im- 
mediately felt the influence of the odic emanations, 
which are reflected from a mirror like light. Wlien I 
strained my muscles, the sensations created by my arm 
became stronger, the prickling was sharper, and he 
became so warm that the sweat-drops collected on his 
forehead, though the temperature of the room was but 
51° Fahrenheit. He did not, however, feel any desire 
to strain his own muscles. I repeated the same ex- 
periment with Miss Zinkel ; she felt the increased odic 
influence of my muscular exertion, reflected from the 
glass, but she felt no psychical impulse to imitate it. 

In these experiments we can distinguish two influ- 
ences: one immediately physical — namely, the odic 
emanation from my hands towards the sensitive, and 
this is also felt under the laws of odic reflection ; the 
other psychical, where a distinct mental operation, tbe 
voluntary exertion of muscular power, flows ower into 
another person, a sensitive, and excites in him a similar 
mental operation, the will to exert the muscles, and 
even gives him a disposition to assault me. The act 
of my will, directed upon a tension of tlie muscles, 
passes over into another person, four steps distant, and 
excites a similar act of the will in him, his act being 
called forth by no motive save my volition. The 
physical and psycliical influence are separated by the 
use of the mirror ; the physical, the odic emanation, 
the radiation, is reflected according to its laws ; but 
the spiritual principle is not reflected, and tlierefore is 
of another nature. Here we find a sharp line separat- 
ing the comprehensible from the incomprohentfible. 



182 SOMNAMBULISM AXD CRAMP. 

I look upon the preceding facts as introductory to 
the following higher phenomena of the psychical 
class : 

§ 139. Dr. Blass^ control over Miss Beyer. — When I 
first saw Miss Anna Beyer, in January, 1848, in the 
house of Dr. Blass, in Vienna, she was somnambulic. 
Professor Ragsky was the only other person present. 
"When the physician spoke to her, she replied to him ; 
but when I or Dr. Ragsky spoke to her, she did not 
answer, and apparently did not hear, even when I spoke 
in the palm of her hand. In this condition of so-styled 
"connection" with her physician, she was by no means 
insensible to odic reactions, upward passes, like pain- 
ings etc., with which I tried her. I may incidentally 
remark that, since she is a very obliging and affable 
girl in her normal state, any suspicion that she know- 
ingly and purposely gave me no answer, would be out 
of place. The important point in this matter was the 
statement of Dr. Blass that the girl, in her sleep, 
obeyed his will in all things, and even when he ex- 
ercised his volition in silence. To show the correct- 
ness of this assertion, he requested us to put his power 
over her to the test. We spoke alternately French 
and Latin, so that she should not, by any possibility, 
understand ; for she was the daughter of a poor potter 
from Bohemia, and she had never entered a house 
where any tougue save German or Bohemian was spo- 
ken : and therefore there was no ground to suppose that 
she understood either of the languages used by us. I 
proposed that he should silently order her to demand 
a glass of water and drink it. Dr. Ragsky and myself 
placed ourselves on opposite sides of the physician 



MENTAL EXALTATION IX SOMNAMBULISM. 183 

and the somnambulist, and watched them attentive!) . 
The former stood with folded arms, all of us being 
silent. In half a minute I saw the girl move her lips 
as if with thirst ; she now asked for a glass of water, 
and when it was given to her, she drank. It was then 
proposed that the physician should dispose her to get 
up from her chair and lie down on a sofa near at hand. 
Not a German word was spoken, and we waited in 
silence for the result. She soon arose, unsteadily, as 
in sleep, went with closed eyes to the sofa, and laid 
down upon it. Several such tasks were proposed, and 
all were successfully performed. In the meantime, I 
tried by efforts of my will to govern her, but she did 
not obey me, as she had previously given me no 
answer. Finally, the physician offered to awaken her 
by his mere volition, witliout doing or saying anything 
to her. Her sleep was so profound that Professor 
Ragsky thrust needles into her hands, and pinched lior 
severely, and poked his linger into her eye, without 
any manifestation of sensation from her. When Dr. 
Blass placed himself opposite to her, with the silent 
purpose to awaken her, she turned herself over u]ion 
the sofa, and said in her sleep : " I am coming" [Ich 
Jconune schon gleich, in the Viennese dialect]. She 
then sat up, sighed, rubbed lier eyes, and looked at us 
with the air of one just awakened from a deep sleep. 

§ 140. OlhtT experiments with Miss Beyer. — Some 

days after, I repeated my visit to Miss Beyer and Dr. 
Blass. The experiment of the jrlass of water was re- 
peated under the .-nme circumstances and with the 
same result. At my request, he wished lior to give her 
left liand to him, and slie did so. I suggested that ho 



184 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

should put a pen in her hand and she should give it 
back to him. She carried out this silent task exactly, 
and I noticed an unmistakeable inward movement in 
her, namely, that all this was done with the coopera- 
tion of a certain soretic, od-positive influence. I then 
wished her to take the pen from him again, and she 
took it ; and in this motion too, I perceived the effects 
of od-positive influences; the will of the physician 
worked positive-soretically upon her, and I observed 
some of the premonitory symptoms of cramp. 

I wished now to know whether these influences 
could be exercised at a distance. Dr. Blass placed 
himself in the opposite corner of the room, and at my 
request willed that she should come to him. At first 
she became uneasy in her chair, then, still asleep and 
with closed eyes, she got up as if with difficulty and 
with the unsteady motion of a person half asleep, fell 
back upon her chair several times, and at last moved 
slowly across the room, evidently with much exertion, 
to her physician. He laid her down upon a sofa and 
went into another room, at my request. I wished to 
try whether the influence would pass through the wall, 
and, at the same time, subject the physician to an in- 
dubitable test. When he was on the other side of the 
wall, I suggested that he should wake her from her 
sleep. I soon saw the consequences of od-positive so- 
retic influence. She turned over, moved her limbs un- 
easily, raised herself on the sofa, sat up, sighed, rub- 
bed her eyes, awoke, opened her eyes, evidently just 
awaking from a deep sleep. A week later Miss Beyer 
was in my house, and Dr. Blass was with us. I re- 
quested him to wake her from somnambulic sleep by a 
mere silent, unexpressed act of his volition, and she 



MENTAL EXALTATION IN SOMNAMBULISM. 185 

soon awoke. I repeated the experiment again of hav- 
ing him vriW that she should want a glass of water 
and drink it ; and again she showed the signs of thirst, 
asked for water and drank it when given to her. 

§ 141. The author gets control of Miss Beyer. — In 

the meantime I came more and more in contact with 
Miss Beyer. I am an old and gray headed man ; Dr. 
Blass is young and vigorous, of about half my number 
of years. The appearance and deportment of Aliss 
Beyer showed that she was a good and virtuous girl. 
During our experiments I perceived that she gradually 
became friendly to me and the strong spiritual bond 
uniting her to her physician was weakened. She said 
my method of making passes over her was cooler and 
more beneficial. She now began to hear me and to 
answer me. I often sent for her and busied myself 
with her for a half a day or a whole day at a time. 
Finally she became irritated at her physician on ac- 
count of relapses which she had attributed to him, 
though without reason, as I think ; but the result was 
her inclination for me was strengthened at the cost of 
him who had previously been her physician. I now 
tried whether I could not succeed too in awakening 
her by the mere exertion of my will. The first attempts 
all failed. When I asked her whether I should not 
awaken her, and she said yes, I requested her to wake, 
and she immediately did so. I made the same experi- 
ment with the same result on Miss Atzmannsdorfer. I 
went into her room and f<)und her in sonmamljulic sleep. 
The sun shone beautifully and I wished to make some 
experiments with sunshine. I told her my desire and 
requested her to wake up and arise. Soon after 1 said 



186 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

this I perceived some cramp-like motions, and at the 
end of a minute she was awake. My words had 
worked soretically upon her head. 

The possibility of awakening Miss Beyer from som- 
nambulic sleep, by simply ordering her to awake hav- 
ing been thus established, I saw in that fact the tran- 
sition to a higher possibility of awakening her by an 
unexpressed effort of my will, as Dr. Blass had done. 
As I saw her attachment for me increasing I again 
tried to influence her by silent volition. When she 
was sitting, somnambulic on the sofa, I sat down in 
front of her, about a yard off, and willed that she 
should awake, myself remaining silent and motionless. 
I had scarcely began to exert my will before she said 
" Only a little longer : I am sleeping so well." She 
had evidently felt the influence of my will and as it 
was not her wish to wake up, she sought to induce me 
to desist from compelling her to awake. Encouraged 
by this, I kept up my mental effort, and within a mi- 
nute she stood up awake. Afterwards she again went 
into the somnambulic sleep : I allowed her to sleep 
awhile quietly and then sat down three steps distant 
from her. It was in the dark chamber, perfectly dark- 
ened. When I silently willed that she should awake, 
she rose within a minute, sighed, rubbed her eyes, as 
she had done when Dr. Blass experimented with her, 
and awoke. Some weeks later she again went to sleep 
in the obscurity of the dark chamber ; and when I 
silently willed that she should awake, she did so and 
as quickly as for her physician previously. Three 
days later I repeated the experiment, and obtained 
the same result. Five days later I awakened her 
three times in one day in the same manner. 



MEXTAL EXALTATIOX IN SOMNAMBULISM. 187 

I considered further experiments Trith this sensitive 
as superfluous. What I had seen in the house of I)r. 
Blass was no longer subject to doubt about its truth 
or exactness ; I had proved it myself. And thus the 
fact was undeniably established that hy the mere exer- 
tion of the miU, unaccompanied hy any ivord or sign, a 
man may so work njmi the mind of a somnambulic 
sensitive friendly to him, as to govern the actions of the 
latter and even to awaken her from somnamhdism in 
which she insensible to wounds and violent irritations. 



§ 142. The somnambulist does not confound her 
conscientiousness with that of the operator.— It must 
not be overlooked that tlie spiritual comnmnication 
between the somnambulic and tlie non-somnambulic 
person is not as has been often asserted, a kind of 
mental union, wherein the somnambulist changes her 
ideas for those of her physician and considers his 
mental operations as her own. This is evidently an 
error no matter how often such an explanation has 
been given. It appears by the statements of Miss 
Beyer that this was by no means the case. It was not 
her physicians purpose to drink water or to go to this 
or that place, but that slic should do it. Neither did 
slie comprehend it as if she supposed the physician and 
liorself to be the same person. When she drank 
water in accordance with his silent order she demanded 
it from him ; she said "give me some water ;" "give 
me the glass." She distinguished therefore her per- 
sonality from his, and knew that he was a separate 
individual. After he had taken her l»ack to her seat 
when she crossed the room to him, at his silent order, 



188 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

he asked her why she had come to him ; and she with 
a tone of wonder and reproach, said " Why, you wished 
it ; you called me ; you would have it so." From this 
it is clear that she recognized his will with a compara- 
tively clear conscientiousness, and knowingly in obe- 
dience to that will, formed her own determinations 
and acted independently upon them. The mental pro- 
cess was perceptibly the same in Miss Atzmannsdorfer 
when she awoke in accordance with my wish. It was 
not she that wished to make odic experiments with 
sunshine, but she was willing to give herself for the 
experiments which I wished to make. There is there- 
fore no confusion or change in the conception of per- 
sonality. 

This theory, then, can furnish no solution for the 
problem, but on the contrary presents only a darker 
problem than the fact itself, and would increase the 
obscurity rather than throw light upon it. We must 
not confuse and darken the unexplained problems of 
nature by arbitrary and baseless suppositions, but ra- 
ther we should hold ourselves to a strict account of 
what we comprehend and of what we do not. 

§ 143. The established facts of clairvoyance.— Let 

us now hold fast to the exact result, fresh from expe- 
rience as just stated, and we perceive therein three 
points in regard to the power of somnambulists under 
certain circumstances : — 

1. They can foresee the condition of their own physical 
health. 

2. When other persons direct exertions of poivcr at 
them they can feel the odic influence, and can be affected 
thereby psychically. 



MENTAL EXALTATION IN SOMNAMBULISM. 189 

3. They can perceive volitions of other persons though 
the volitions he not expressed. 

For the first point there is, as yet, no trace of an 
explanation ; we must accept the fact in its simple 
character, and record it among the hundreds of others 
unexplained problems in the world. 

The third point is equally inexplicable to us. Like 
the first it is psychical in its nature ; and psychology, 
far from explaining its causes, elements and connec- 
tion, has not yet undertaken to investigate it. So far 
as we see, the non-sensitives' act of volition is commu- 
nicated to the somnambulist. But we know of no other 
means of communicating a volition save by S3niibols, 
such as the conventional ones of sounds, gestures and 
writing. But none of these means are here used ; not 
only air and darkness, but walls may separate the per- 
sons between whom the communication is passing, and 
yet the purpose in one brain is transferred to the 
other. The whole science of psychology shows noth- 
ing analogous, even in the least point, to this commu- 
nication. So long as these extraordinary things are 
not thoroughly investigated and taken to pieces, and 
then philosophically studied, every theory about them 
must be withheld. 

The second point, which holds an intermediate posi- 
tion between the first and third, is somewhat related 
to odic radiation. The stream of ordinary od flowing 
from the u[)raised arm is strongest at the point of the 
outstretched fingers. If then the muscles of the arm 
be made rigid, and the muscular power be thus exer- 
ted, the odic stream becomes stronger ; at the same 
time a psycliological influence is felt by the sensitive 
accompanying the physiological occurrence ; he feels 



190 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

a solicitation to exercise his muscles though he was 
not somnambulic, and, indeed, was only a sensitive. 
This first influence on the will comes from the strength- 
ened odic emanation of the non-sensitive. A transfer 
of the volition takes place here, undoubtedly, contem- 
poraneously and in connection with the transfer of 
the od. 

A superficial glance at these matters might tempt 
us to consider the odic and mental emanations to be 
the same, and, perhaps, as differing only in degree ; 
and men disposed to favor materialism might adhere 
to this view. But near as they may be to each other, 
these experiments yet show their essential difference. 
Od, as we know, is always reflected from the glass ; 
its psychical companion was not. While Miss Beyer 
was connected with her physician by so strong a spir- 
itual bond that she heard him alone, and not me or 
Professor Ragsky, while she obeyed his volitions only 
and not mine, she yet readily perceived my purely odic 
influences, and was delicately sensitive to all the re- 
actions which I attempted by like and unlike pairings 
of my hands with hers, and perceived quite as strong- 
ly and just in the same way as when her physician did 
the same things. Among other experiments I had him 
to cross his hands and take hold of hers, and she found 
this to have a very lukewarm effect. I also had him 
to hold her unlike hands a short time ; at first she 
found the sensation pleasant, but soon she drew away 
when, after the equilibrium had been established, a 
surcharge and luke-warmness followed. In the pure- 
ly odic respect, then the influence of her physician did 
not differ from that of other persons ; his soretic re- 
actions were as disagreeable to the somnambulist as 



MEXTAL EXALTATION IX SOMXAMBtJLISM. 191 

mine ; and hence we may infer, that the spiritual rela- 
tionship, the so-called rapport or connection, and the 
dark mental communication between the physician and 
the somnambulist, must be some place else than in od, 
to which it may be related as it is to mineral magnet- 
ism ; it may accompany od or not, but it alwavsVe- 
seryes its independence. The two appear together in 
their influences, but there is no identity in their na- 
ture. 

§ 144. Some general remarks on clairvoyance.— 

I cannot close this chapter without saying a few words 
about clairvoyance generally, although I do it unwil- 
lingly, for I think the time has not yet come for a sat- 
isfactory explanation. We must divide clairvoyance 
into two kinds : Jirst, such as is subjective, occupying 
itself with the internal, corporeal and mental condition 
of the somnambulist ; and secondly, objective clairvoy- 
ance, which occupies itself with the external world, or 
persons and things outside of the personality of the 
clairvoyant. Each of these two kinds must again be 
divided into the clairvoyance relating to the present 
and tliat relating to the future. These divisions are 
important, if we arc to distinguisli the compreljensible 
from the incomprehensible, the probable from the im- 
probable, and the possible from the impo^ible. We 
have seen that subjective clairvoyance, of the present, 
wherein the somnambulist sees into Ids' own body, 
where the eyes could not penetrate by the assistance 
of ordinary light, is possible according to odic laws, 
and finds its explanation in diodanoity. The subjec- 
tive clairvoyance, of the future, wherein the somnam- 
bulists predict the changes of their diseases, is astun- 



192 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

ishing and entirely inexplicable under our present 
knowledge of od and sensitiveness. That part of ob- 
jective clairvoyance relating to the present, is partly 
explained by diodaneity and odic radiation. In regard 
to such objective clairvoyance as spreads out without 
limit of space or time, I have already stated that, so 
far as my observation goes, the prophecies of somnam- 
bulists are false and the mere vagaries of wild dream- 
ing. 

To give a little more completeness and confirmation 
to the truth of what I have just said, I shall add some 
further cases that came under my own observation. 
First, I shall take up the subjective^ and then the objec- 
tive prophecies. 

§ 145. A clairvoyant prophecy by Miss Reicbel. — 

In August, 1844, 1 took Miss Eeichel, when extremely 
sensitive, to the city. There she became somnambulic, 
and among other sayings, foretold that she would have 
a violent attack of cramp that night at ten o'clock. 
At nine o'clock I brought her back to Castle Reisen- 
berg, and at ten o'clock precisely, the predicted fit of 
cramp came upon her. This lady foretold innumera- 
ble times, with the utmost precision, when she would 
have her next attacks of cramp or somnambulism, and 
these proiipaecies were always so exactly fulfilled that 
it was the custom of all the servants in my house to 
ask her, in somnambulism, when she would have the 
next attack, so that preparations to wait upon her 
could be made accordingly. When she predicted an 
attack, the whole matter was considered as settled. 
She made a request that, when she had cramps, par- 
ticularly opisthotonus, passes should not be made over 



MENTAL EXALTATION IN SOMNAMBULISM. 193 

her with Steel magnets, but that her cramp should be 
allowed to rage itself out; the use of magnets, as she 
said, did no good, and only made the cramps last lon- 
ger. This proyed to be true. An attack, which should 
have lasted four hours, was treated with magnetic pas- 
ses by her physician, and it lasted eight hours, instead 
of being cured. Miss Weigand used to tell every day 
at what time her somnambulic sleep would be-in I 
went several times to see her before the hour fixed and 
satisfied myself that the abnormal sleep commenced 
precisely at the time predicted. 

§ 146. Prediclionsbyolhersomnambulisls.— But 

occasionally Miss Weigand predicted what was to oc- 
cur at a more distant time. She foretold more than a 
month m advance that she would become somnambu- 
1.0 on the 5th of June, 1855, and continue in that con- 
dition for three weeks uninterruptedly. I visited her 
during that time, and found all her jM-cdictions ful- 
Wled. Such cases often happened with her. Miss 
Orirtler went so far in foretelling her own condition, 
that she was not content with speaking, but she re- 
quired her physician. Dr. Horst, to write down what 
she said, and when he had done it, in my presence, lie 
had to road it to her, and then to make corrections at 
her dictation. All her words were vcrilied by the 
subsequent events. When Miss Zinkol said one eve- 
ning, in somnambulism, that .'.he was afraid of the com- 
ing night, for she woul.l have an atta.k of toothache 
which would last an hour, I noticed her statement' 
without .saying anything to any one. The ne.xt morn- 
ing I inquired how she ha.l slept. She complained 
that she had not slept well, for, from th- time the 





194 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

clock struck 12 until one, she had suffered with severe 
tooth-ache. At another time Miss Zinkel, while som- 
nambulic at night, said she would have a bleeding at 
the nose, the next morning at ten o'clock, and it would 
be preceeded by great dizziness. I would relieve both 
greatly, she said, if at nine o'clock in the morning, I 
would lay some small horse-shoe magnets on her breast 
and back, with the poles downwards, the south pole 
on the right side. I said nothing to her about this. 
At eight o'clock in the morning and several times la- 
ter, she came to me and complained of a painful diz- 
ziness which had caused her to fall down about half 
an hour before. In accordance with her direction I 
wrapped up the magnets and applied them. Her head 
immediately became clear, and in less than three min- 
utes the dizziness was gone. At ten o'clock I visited 
her and found her nose bleeding. On another occa- 
sion, Miss Zinkel, when in somnambulism, said she 
would be present at a wedding on the next Sunday, 
and at midnight would get sore eyes, but the soreness 
would be easily cured by laying parsley that had been 
soaked in water, upon her eyes ; and she requested me 
to prepare some parsley in this way for her. I said 
nothing of this commission and had the parsley pre- 
pared. Some days afterward, on the morning after 
the wedding I saw her, and while she was telling me 
about the festivities of the occasion, she complained 
that at midnight she had commenced to suffer from a 
soreness of the eyes, so serious that she was afraid she 
would lose her sight. After half an hour, the inflam- 
mation began to increase ; and when I saw her, her 
eyes were very red, much swollen, and liad a strange 
expression. She could not open nor move them with- 



MEXTAL EXALTATION IN SOMNAMBULISM. 195 

out feeling pain behind them. I could scarcely con- 
ceal my astonishment at this mysterious phenomenon 
which she had so accurately predicted a week before. 
I then applied the parsley ; the pain ceased in a few 
minutes, and in two days the inflammation had entire- 
ly disappeared. Miss Sturmann, Mrs. Krebs, Mrs. 
Lederer, :Mrs. Kienesberger, Misses Winter, Krueger* 
MaLx, Rupp, von Seckendorf, Dorfer, Blahusch, aIoIs 
Bayer, Friedrich Weidlich and many otliers, all fore- 
told the times of their future attacks, and not a single 
case is known to me, where such a somnambulic pro- 
phecy about the somnambulist's own state of health 
was not proved by the event to be exactly true. [It 
appears however, from the next paragraph, that som- 
nambulists sometimes err in predicting when they will 
recover finally from liability to somnambulism.] When 
we take a general view of a thousand similar facts, we 
may infer, as an established principle, that somnambu- 
lists, as a elms, have an insight and a prophetic facul- 
ty within the spJi^re of their own subjectivity, entirely 
strange to m hitherto, and inexplicable in the p>resent 
condition of our psycMogical knoivledge. 

§ 147. Limits of objective clairvoyance.— And now 

let us examine some further examples of the objective 
clairvoyant prophecy, such as that recorded of Miss 
Kynast, when she spoke of the superintendent's child. 
Miss Atzmannsdorfer was living in my house, in the 
country, wlien Professor Lippich, her protector, who 
had brought her to mo, and to whom she was warmly 
attached, fell sick and died, after an illness of two 
weeks. She was at tliat time extremely sensitive, and 
at least half tlie time, day and night^ in somnainbu- 



196 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

lism. During the illness of Professor Lippicli she ex- 
pressed surprise that he did not come to see her every 
third day, as he had previously done. At last she be- 
came offended at his supposed neglect. It was plain, 
from this, that she did not know he was ill. I then 
told her that he was in bed, dangerously ill. Not- 
withstanding this, she did not perceive that I was con- 
cealing the news of his death, which I had received 
several days before. She even besought me to let her 
have horses to ride into the city to visit Lippich, and 
this after he was dead, dissected and buried. I often 
asked Miss Beyer, in somnambulism, about future 
events, and she as often put me off with the reply : 
" How can I know that ; nobody can know it." Miss 
Nowotny, who had so wonderfully and truly predicted 
the changes of her illness six weeks in advance, after- 
wards became ill by neglect, and then, for the first 
time, went into strongly-expressed somnambulism. She 
soon made predictions, which are not fit for repetition, 
but which proved to be the mere vagaries of dream- 
ing. Miss Zinkel predicted correctly the course of 
her brief illness and the time of her recovery. She 
then went farther into the future, and said she would 
never become somnambulic again in her whole life. 
Since that time, however, she has been somnambulic 
several times, and will assuredly be so again. In tlie 
same manner Miss Girtler has often stated that, with 
this or that attack, her illness would end and would 
never return. It ended every time, but always re- 
turned again. Mrs. Krebs had been in the habit, for 
a long time, of predicting in somnambulism, the attacks 
of cramp, and these predictions invariably proved to 
be correct. Suddenly she discovered that the wedding 



MEXTAL EXALTATION IX SOMNAMBULISM. 197 

ring on her finger had been broken, probably in con- 
sequence of the violent motions in one of her attacks 
of cramp, and she now sank in deep reflection for 
several days, studying what the breaking could mean. 
Finally she said, very confidently, that she had seen 
the meaning, which was, that her husband would die, 
after three months, and would be buried on Corpus- 
Christi Day. Her husband prepared himself with 
prayer to meet his God : but Corpus-Christi Day came 
and went, and, after more than a year and a day, Mr. 
Krebs was still alive and as well as ever. Miss Zinkel, 
who predicted the changes of her own illness with 
wonderful precision, prescribed, unasked, various re- 
medies for stomach-ache, and, among others, a number 
of small fragments of calcareous crystals, which were 
to be placed in a little bag and laid on the stomach. 
Since the strongly od-negative, sliarp-pointed crystals 
might exercise the same influence as a right hand, I 
tried tlie prescription, but the prediction was not ful- 
filled ; the crystals did not cure the stomacli-ache. 

§ 148. Miss Wei*^an<l*s celestial revelations,— On my 

first visit to Miss Weigand, 1 found her in the condi- 
tion called " Ectasy" by the magnetisers. She was lying 
upon her back upon a bed, with her hands folded over 
her breast, as in prayer, surrounded by a semi-circle 
of persons in devotion ; they were admiring and honor- 
ing her as a saint. A large, tall num and a woman 
were kneeling down ])eforc her, and her physician 
sat at a table near Ijy taking down every word uttered 
by the somnambulic dreamer, in a drawling, pathetic 
tone. As I entered she was just telling the man and 
his wife on their knees that their dear deceased child 



198 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

was not in tlie Third, but only in the Second Heaven, 
whence it would soon go to the Third, and advance 
to the foot-stool of God. The poor couple were 
bathed in tears. The physician put down everything, 
; and then took notes of a journey made by Miss Wei- 
gand to the planets Ceres and Yenus, and to the Sun, 
the pattern of her trip looking as though it had been 
cut out by orthodox catholic tailors, and all that sort 
of nonsense. She continued to speak such stuff, mixed 
' with absurd predictions, for more than an hour, and 
the grosser the foolishness, the more excited were the 
prayers of those present, many of whom were on their 
knees, with their hands raised in prayer. I have seen 
and heard many things of this kind, but I think what I 
have related is enough to support the general statement 
to show that, in the thirty-one more or less..somnam- 
bulic persons with whom I have busied myself, I have 
not heard a single true prediction about matters lying 
outside of themselves, from any one of them. All 
their predictions about foreign matters were, without 
exception, the mere play of the ungoverned fancy. It 
is possible that higher powers have appeared else- 
where, but I never saw anything to convince me of their 
existence. 

If these observations be compared with each other 
and with the prophetic power ascribed to somnambu- 
lists by the common people, it will be seen that the 
latter are far wrong. It may be said that my som- 
nambulists were not deep enough in somnambulism ; 
but if not one among thirty-one was deep enough to 
have the supposed prophetic faculty, then tliat faculty 
must be very rare, even among somnambulists. And 
then, no one has given a sign by wliich the deepness 



MEXTAL EXALTATION IX SOMNAMBULISM. 199 

necessary to fortune-telling may be known. Just a^ I 
am writing this, there is much talk in Vienna about 
some somnambulists reported to have given astonish- 
ing statements relative to events passing in Venice, 
Zara and elsewhere, and which statements were con- 
firmed almost as soon as made public. But scarcely 
had the supposed confirmation become known before 
later news came, proving the somnambulists to have 
been all wrong, and their good repute as wonder- 
workers of brief duration. 

§ 149. Clairvoyant reading the thoughts of others. 

Another remarkable kind of clairvoyance has been 
observed, and I must not leave it unnoticed here ; 
but no proof of it has ever appeared within the 
range of my experience. It will be best represent- 
ed by the following example : Persons who interest 
themselves in somnambulism and the like, are not 
rare in the highest circles of Euroi)ean society. 
Such a gentleman sent another, a person familiar 
with the subject and somewhat sensitive, to Paris, 
to examine the state of magnetic knowledge there' 
particularly in the assemblies of Baron Dupotet. As 
he was about to start, one evening, to one of 
those assemblies, he received a letter from his pa- 
tron. He put the letter in his pocket, intending to 
read it at another time. When he entered the assem- 
bly a somnambulic lady, with whom he was acquaint- 
ed, addressed him thus: "Ah! you have received 

an interesting and important letter from ?" 

" Yes," he replied ; " wljat does it say ?" " I can not 
tell you yet ; I do not see it," was the answer. Tlic 
conversation was continued, and after the lapse of half 



200 SOJINAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

an hour, the visitor, tickled by curiosity, went to one 
side, opened his letter and read it. When he returned 
and sat down in the company, the somnambulist again 
addressed him and said, " I can now tell you what 
there is in your letter ; your patron writes to you that 

you shall ;" and she went on to state the purport 

of the letter very correctly. I have the report of this 
case from a person in whom I place much confidence ; 
but I tell it as I heard it, and can not vouch for it 
personally. Presuming, however, that it *s correct, it 
is very instructive. So long as the gentleman did not 
know the contents of the letter, so long the somnam- 
bulist was also ignorant ; but from the moment that he 
knew it, she knew it also. She, therefore, had no way 
to learn its contents save through the consciousness 
of its possessor. Between the time when she could 
not discover the purport of the letter, and the time 
when she learned it, nothing had passed, save the read- 
ing by the gentleman, add the knowledge of it in his 
consciousness. She, therefore, had access to his con- 
sciousness, could seize the ideas there current, and 
could transfer them to her own consciousness. Our 
physicists, and the psychologists of the new school, 
will say, " this cannot be ; it is impossible." I reply : 
" I cannot comprehend or explain the possibility, but 
the fact (assuming the truth of the report), establishes 
the posibility. Although I cannot explain it, I would 
not, therefore, be justified in denying the fact. Logic 
does not justify the conclusion, that, because we do 
not understand a thing, that therefore it does not exist. 
We do not know what a mental conception is ; and so 
long as we are ignorant on such a point, so long 
as we do not know whether a mental conception 



MENTAL EXALTATION IN SOMNAMBULISM. 201 

is of a material nature or not, whether it is the effect 
of a force, or a force in itself like od, whether it has 
or radiates out an atmosphere ; so long, in one word 
as we know so very little of the nature of ideas, and 
of the presence of idea in our consciousness — so Ion"-, 
I say, as such is the case, we must not declare such 
a great fact as the one under consideration, to be 
unworthy of investigation. We are rather under 
obligation, our highest interest requires us, to investi- 
gate it. 

§ 150. MissReichel frightened by an imaginary dog, 

—Following the course of impartial investigation, I 
shall here record my certain experiences, as a counter 
part to the statements of another, as recorded in the 
last paragraph. I have already told how Miss Reichel, 
when in deep somnambulism, did not observe that she 
had reached the top of the stairway, and that she raised 
her foot for another step. [The autlior has not told 
us anything of the kind, that I remember. Trans.] 
She had, therefore, not directly observed, nor learned 
from my consciousness, the fact tliat we liad reached 
the top of the stairway. It is true, perhaps, her at- 
tention was not fixed on the stairs, but on her conver- 
sation, and attention is absolutely necessary to obser- 
vation. In another case, however, there was no lack 
of attention. The same night, Miss Reichel, very deep 
in somnambulism, wished to go out into the beautiful 
moonshine. All representations and appeals to make 
her desist from this purpose were in vain, and she was 
gf)ing to have her will, even if slie had to lireak awny 
forcibly. Finally, it occurred to a servant to warn 
her against a large dog, which ran loose in the park 

0* 



202 SOMNAMBULISM AXD CKAMP. 

at night. This induced her to abandon her purpose, 
and go back to her bed room. But there was no dog 
in the park ; the only dog in front of the castle was a 
Florentinian molossus of cast iron. She, therefore, 
did not know that there was no dog about, and, not- 
withstanding her somnambulism, she was deceived by 
a very simple trick. Her perception did not reach 
through the park, nor into the consciousness of the 
lying servant. Miss Blahusch, while with me in the 
dark chamber, waiting for the development of her 
visual faculty, fell into somnambulic sleep. Mr. Leo- 
polder was present. As he began to joke with her, 
she supposed him to be an unmarried man, and her 
conversation with him, taking its tone from that sup- 
position, continued for some time. He not only, how- 
ever, had a wife living, but one of his daughters was 
present in the same dark chamber ; yet the somnam- 
bulist did not perceive these facts. 

§ 151. Clairvoyants not hearing when spoken to. — 

When I spoke with Miss Eeichel in the most suscep- 
tible condition of her somnambulism she did not un- 
derstand me and I had to repeat. Once it happened 
that I had' to repeat my words three times, and then 
had to change the form of the sentence before she 
understood me. I am not a native of Vienna but was 
born in Stuttgard, and therefore have not the Viennese 
accent ; and this slight dilference between our forms 
of expression though we both speak tolerably pure 
German, made my words difficult of understanding 
for her. The same difficulty occurred with Miss Beyer. 
This lady, being a native of Bohemia speaks almost 
exclusively high German, [In Bohemia the people are 



MENTAL EXALTATION IN SOMNAMBULISM. 203 

of Slavonic origin and when they speak German at 
all they usually speak only high German, whereas the 
German people proper ordinarily speak a vulgar dia- 
lect or platt peculiar to their province in addition to 
the high German or pure tongue. Trans.] but yet 
there were times at first when in the deepest somnam- 
bulism, she could not understand me until I had 
repeated my words. As late as the 19th January 
1848, on which day I had made vain attempts to wake 
her by the silent exercise of my will, she said in som- 
nambulism with an expression of regret : " I do not 
know your will as I used to know that of my physi- 
cian." Both these sensitives in their ordinary som- 
nambulic state, were entirely incapable of perceiving 
my thouglits in my own mind ; the intervention of 
signs was necessary. Although Miss Beyer's attention 
was strongly fixed on what I was saying she did not 
know what it was until I had repeated it plainly. I 
made similar observation with Misses Girtler, Atz- 
mannsdorfer, Krueger, Mrs. Krebs, Mrs. Lederer, 
and others. 

§ 152. (lalrvoyance not necessarily belomnni? to 
somnambulism. — Although the transfer of the idea was 
purely mental, in the first case, nothing similar occur- 
red in the latter experiments ; in these, signs were 
always necessary to convey the ideas : but since the 
mental transfer of ideas in Miss Beyer in numerous 
cases is known to my own experience, and as I can by 
no possibility deny such communication, therefore 
speaking of differing states, we arrive at the analytical 
result, of which wc previously had a glimpse in the 
wonderful prophetic power of Miss Nowotny and 



204 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

Kynast, that clairvoyance does not necessarily belong 
to somnambulism, but that in the latter condition, 
something else, may appear, a higher spiritual condi- 
tion which is the means of this objective clairvoyance 
and serves to convey ideas immediately from one mind 
to another. 

It will be said that there are states in somnambu- 
lism, and that what does not appear in one stage, will 
be found in another. The possibility is not to be 
denied. Yet the whole range of my experience 
proved that persons in the lowest stage of somnambu- 
lism, Miss Zinkel for instance, when merely touched 
by it in nearly healthy days, had the faculty of fore- 
seeing the course of her health for a week to come, 
during which week she was to be well and able to 
attend to her ordinary work, and to go to a ball ; 
though deep somnambulists in the highest exaltation 
could not know the thoughts of other persons around 
them. It was then neither the height nor the depth 
of the somnambulism which determined the spiritual 
perception ; a superinduced change in the somnambulic 
state brought this perceptive power with it, and this 
change was evidently one connected immediately with 
sensitiveness, but whose nature, cause and modes of 
action are entirely unknown to us. 

§ 153. Acuteness of odic perception and somnam- 
bulism opposite states* — Miss Atzmannsdorfer assured 
me at various times that the capability of seeing the 
odic lights and feeling the odic sensations stands in a 
kind of opposition to the faculty of clairvoyance in 
somnambulism, and when either rose the other percep- 
tibly sank. She considered the former as a sensuous 



MENTAL EXALTATION IX SOMNAMBULISM. 205 

external feeling ; the latter as an inward conception. 
The faculty of external perception became more acute 
when she was vexed, or angry or frightened ; while 
the inward prophetic faculty grew stronger in propor- 
tion to the quietude of her mind and the depth of her 
sleep. I have shown above that vexation, anger, and 
fright operate od-positively and soretically upon the 
head like upward passes, which increase the acuteness 
of the vision and feeling for the odic rays. On the 
other hand I have proved that downward passes exer- 
cise a nemetic influence, and they not only weaken the 
vision for odic lights but they even destroy it entirely 
for a time. That downward passes have a tendency 
to induce sleep has been known for years. But it is 
in the deepest sleep that the somnambulists are the 
most disposed, to make predictions about the future 
conditions of their health and al)out other matters. 
The statements of Miss Atzmannsdorfer agree remark- 
ably with all my varied experiences, as recorded in 
this work ; and on taking a general view of the facts 
we arrive at the following general result : as on one 
side the soretic transfer of od to the cerebral system 
exalts the odic perception and weakens the clairvoyant 
faculty ; so on the other side nemetic transfer of od 
from the brain, and to the sympathic system, quiets 
mental excitement, weakness and even destroys the 
odic perception, induces rest and sleep, and creates, 
excites, and exalts the clairvoyant faculty. 

Thus we have worked ourselves through the endless 
confusion and entanglement to a certain commanding 
point, whence we can with tolerable clearness overlook 
a larger portion of the field. 



206 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

§ 154. A blow at the materialists. — Some learned 
men, belonging to the school of gross realism, includ- 
ing certain physiologists like Mr. Yogt, and many 
chemists like Mr. Liebig, who have found that common 
salt is decomposed and even elaborated in the human 
body in the same manner as those chemical processes 
can be conducted in the retort, and thence have drawn 
the illogical conclusion that man, with^his body and 
soul, hide and hair, is nothing more than a course of a 
development of affinity, who look upon consciousness 
as a mere product of material organizations, and as a 
mere function of matter, — people who never made a 
thorough investigation into the inner nature of con- 
sciousness, of ideas and of thought, although they 
think themselves justified and qualified to pass the 
boldest judgments — these people have laid great weight, 
among other things, upon the English investigations 
in somnambulism ; and the Allgemeine Zeitung (of 
Augsburg) has published an article, entitled " An 
Evening with Elliotson," from Herr Cotta, which at- 
tracted much attention and was thought to give a strong 
support to the materialistic views of the nature of the 
human soul. I think this the proper place for me to 
express my opinion about this matter, and about all 
similar cranioscopic investigations. Mr. Elliotson, of 
London, is undeniably deeply learned in the pheno- 
mena of somnambulism, and the world is indebted to 
him for much instruction. But, as the English trans- 
lator of, and commentator upon, some of my writings, 
and as an anatomist familiar with the organs of the hu- 
man head, he should not have overlooked some impor- 
tant points when he asked himself and others for the 
cause of the grimaces and gesticulations which followed 



MENTAL EXALTATION IN SOMNAMBULISM. 207 

when he touched various spots on the head of a som- 
nambulic person with his fore-finger. For, when these 
phenomena are examined by the light of the odic 
theory, they at once take an entirely different shape, 
and the materialistic hypotheses based upon them by 
Elliotson and the German physicists disappear like 
mist. Our skull encloses our brain, which is the in- 
strument of our mental activity, but is this all that is 
to be taken into account here ? Are there not other 
agents — the cutaneous and sub-cutaneous nerves ? Is 
not the skull completely covered with them ? There 
are the two nerves of the forehead, the two trochlears, 
the two temple-nerves, the two large ear-nerves, the 
two nerves behind the ears, the two small and the large 
nerves of the occiput — all sub-cutaneous nerves, 
which, with their branches, lose themselves in the skin, 
and run radius-like towards the vertex. They are all 
divided into two halves, right and left, and therefore 
od-positive and od-negative, and, springing from the 
brain, they communicate with it and pass immediately 
to it. Now we know from the doctrine of the odic 
pairings and passes, and from the strong influences 
exerted by touches on the liead, and by ])asses in va- 
rious directions over the hands of sensitives, that tlic 
slightest like and unlike odic treatment immediately 
causes violent reactions in the sensitive system. We 
also know that there is an immeasurable difference 
wliether the influence of a certain limb, such as a 
finger, be exercised on tlie right or left side, whether 
the direction l)e with or against the course of the 
nerve, whether the influence be exerted for a long or 
a short time, and so on. If now ^fr. Elliotson applies 
the point of his right fore-ling(.'r to the right si<lr of a 



208 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

sensitive's head, so that it is over the large ear-nerve, 
the influence will grow more painful the longer the 
finger be kept in its place. The influence will be of 
like poles re-acting soretically upon each other, and, 
after a little time, will be like that of a surcharge. 
This influence must be almost intolerable to the som- 
nambulist. The influence will re-act obstructively on 
the brain, and will particularly affect the parts nearest 
which the nerve enters the brain, and not immediately 
under the finger, where probably no influence will be 
felt. If Mr. Elliotson now attributes the subject's 
expression of pain to that part of the skull covered 
by the finger, he is evidently in error. The emana- 
tions from his fingers, as we have seen in the course 
of these investigations, operate much more rapidly 
along the course of the nerves than directly through 
the skull, which is an amorphous substance, but although 
permeable to od, it does not conduct it so rapidly as 
the nervous substance. Whenever I made experiments 
in regard to odic influence on the head, I always found 
the effects produced through the sub-cutaneous nerves 
to be the first in time and strength. But if Mr. 
Elliotson moved his finger from one side of the head 
to the other, or used a finger of the other hand, or 
changed its position so that its direction was with, 
and not against, the course of the nerve, or placed it 
where it operated on two nerves at once — if he held 
it for a longer or shorter time, or changed it from one 
nerve to another, or changed its distance nearer to or 
further from the nerve to be affected, in every case 
the change would cause different sensations in the 
somnambulists, sometimes agreeable, sometimes disa- 
greeable, now quick, then slow in motion, here irritat- 



MEXTAL EXALTATION IX SOMNAMBULISM. 209 

ing, there soothing, painful or delicious, and so on ; 
and when he wishes to suppose that the play of 
gesticulations is based on joy and sorrow, religion 
and wickedness, he can find abundant room for his 
fancy. But if it should happen that the odic influence 
of the finger penetrates into the skull, the discharge 
must be conveyed all through the brain under the law 
of odic conduction in continuous bodies, and operates 
upon all parts of it at the same time. This influence 
must be so complicated that no trustworthy conclusion 
can be drawn from it, and the only secure base for 
judging tlie effect of the change of the fingers is in 
the influence exerted on the sub-cutaneous nerves the 
moment after the position of the finger has been 
changed. This can teach us nothing about that part 
of the brain under the finger, and much less of its 
spiritual significance. All the extraordinary things 
laid before us in this way as problems of psychology, 
evidently rest on an improper connection of cause and 
cfl"ect ; tlieir explanation is to be sought in an entirely 
diff*erent direction, and finds its proper solution in the 
laws of od. The materialism of the hylozoists cannot 
reap the slightest harvest in this field. 



210 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 



CHAPTER XV, 

SOME PECULIAR MENTAL CONDITIONS OP SOMNAMBULISTS. 

§ 155. Drowsiness. — Before somnambulic sleep, 
begins, it is often, though not always, preceded by pre- 
monitory feelings such as we call drowsiness when 
they precede ordinary sleep. This ordinary drowsiness 
we can resist and thus put off the commencement of 
sleep, and the same may be said of somnambulic sleep. 
Thus with Miss Kruger while I was making experi- 
ments with her, I saw her struggling against the som- 
nambulic drowsiness, and when I finished my experi- 
ments she fell asleep. I often saw Miss Zinkel beset 
by the same drowsiness. If I was not present, she 
would resist it by taking brisk exercise, going out into 
the fresh air, sprinkling cold water in her face, or 
drinking ice water. By these means she overcame 
the drowsiness ; but she always felt a peculiar pressure 
on the eyes, then a burning of the eyes, and sensations 
similar to those caused by light upward passes. I 
often saw Miss Beyer struggling to repel the somnam- 
bulic drowsiness, and by experience she became prac- 
ticed in the matter. But she had to do penance for 
driving away the sleep. It often happened and some- 



MENTAL CONDITIONS OF SOMNAMBULISTS. 211 

times in my house, when she resisted the approaches 
of somnambulic sleep for the purpose of assisting in 
my experiments, that she was attacked some hours 
later, usually in the night, by cramps. The same often 
happened to Misses Blahusch and Sturmann, Mrs. 
Kienesberger and Mrs. Lederer as I saw. The phe- 
nomena were the most strongly marked in Miss Atz- 
mannsdorfer and I had opportunities very often to 
observe them in her. When I visited her, my presence 
always, as I have previously stated, had a somniferous 
influence on her, but this influence was unwelcome to 
her, and she sought to resist it, as much as possible. 
The resistance caused her eyes to burn, as in Miss 
Zinkel, and then her eyes began to water, and tears 
to flow, just as when I made light upward passes 
over her. The usual violence which she did to the 
drowsiness, a kind of odic victory over herself, worked 
in every respect like an upward pass, and here again 
we see that the exertion of mental power is imme- 
diately connected with an od-positive sorctic influence 
on the brain. 

It is worthy of note that Miss Atzmannsdorfer suc- 
ceeded better in resisting the somnambulic drowsiness 
soon after having had a somnambulic nap. When she 
had been awakened from such a sleep she could resist 
the drowsiness and keep awake longer than at other 
times. 

§ 156. The somiiambiilir consciousness. — lie who 
has never soon .-oninainliiilists rarely has a correct con- 
ception of the mental condition and outward deport- 
ment of such persons. They arc both ash^e)) and 
awake. How can they be both at once ? The i<lea of 



212 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

somnambulism given by Jenny Lind in the opera of 
'■^ La Somnambula," going out witli a lighted candle 
upon a roof, is far irom nature. When I went with a 
lighted candle, at night, to see Miss Zinkel in somnam- 
bulism, her first word was an urgent request that I 
should put out the light, because it burnt her. I placed 
it behind her bed, and she was satisfied with this. 
Miss Eeichel, when somnambulic, would bear no light, 
and if an attempt was made to compel her to submit 
to it she would scream with anger and fall into 
cramps. Miss Atzmannsdorfer could bear the light, 
but only after a conquest over her own feelings, and 
then I had to place it behind some piece of furniture 
so that its direct rays should not strike her. Miss 
Nowotny would not permit the light to be brought 
nearer than the adjoining room. 

But to come back to the state of consciousness in 
somnambulism, some idea of it may be formed from 
the following observation made on Miss Dorfer. I 
was making some odic experiments with her ; she fol- 
lowed my directions and communicated the result to 
me. After a time I noticed her sister, who was pre- 
sent, smiling, and did not know why. She seeing in- 
quiry in my eyes said. "Why, she's asleep." Now for 
the first time I perceived that the sensitive's eyes were 
closed, and that she had become somnambulic without 
my observing it. The conservation, the experiments, 
questions and answers had continued their course, and 
so quiet was her transition to somnambulism that I 
did not notice the great change in the consciousness 
of my assistant. Similar cases often happened in day- 
light and in the dark chamber with Misses Sturmann, 
Reichel, Atzmannsdorfer, Beyer and Kynast, so that • 



irEXTAL COXDITIOXS OF SOMNAMBULISTS. 213 

in the midst of the conversatioii it was necessary for 
me to look or ask "are you asleep or awake ?" 

§ 157. The Author's Orst visit to Miss Girtler.— When 

I made my first visit to Miss Clementine Girtler, I 
found her with her mother, and both came forward 
with studied politeness to meet me as a stranger in- 
troduced by their physician. The first visit was a 
brief one, but the guarded decorum of tlgj young lady, 
her graceful motions, her freedom from affectation, 
and her regular participation in the conversation did 
not indicate that she was in any abnormal state, the 
only apparent signs of which were her closed eyes 
and the use of "thou" in addressing everybody. The 
conservation soon turned upon her health and lier pe- 
culiar condition, and she spoke about it as freely and 
as clearly as if she had been talking of a cough or a 
com. Every sentence was so reasonable, and her de- 
scription of the nature of her state were so true and 
objectively correct that I had to guard myself every 
moment lest I should forget that her mind was in a 
sphere of consciousness far remote from ours. When I 
was about to go away she invito<l me to come again 
and begged pardon in the choicest terms, for the free- 
dom which she had taken of saying "thou" to me, but 
it would be impossible or at least a painful compul- 
sion for her to express herself differently : — this was 
one of the privileges of somnam])ulists. When I re- 
plied among other things how desira})le it is that all 
men should throw off the false portions of their con- 
ventional customs and always use the upright "thou" 
towards each other, the expression met her full a|>- 
proval and she assured me that it was the advantage 



214 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

of somnambulism, that in that state the tongue speaks 
with the truth and sincerity of the inward thoughts 
and feelings ; all direct and indirect falsehoods were 
there sacrificed to the fresh impulses of the heart, un- 
restrained by conventionalities. Men, I replied, was 
there a higher and nobler being than in normal life ; 
and to this she assented with all her heart as she bade 
me Good Day. I describe this scene so circumstan- 
tially because^it gives a correct picture of the condi- 
tion of experienced somnambulists, and enables every 
one to correct erroneous conceptions of that state. No 
person ignorant of somnambulism would have believed 
that this was anything save trickery and deception, 
but Miss Girtler was really a highly interesting and 
deeply somnambulic sufferer, in whom at other times 
the strangest phenomena appeared. I passed many 
hours in intellectual conversation with her on other 
occasions but with occassional interruptions by som- 
nambulic paroxysms wherein the usually mild maiden 
became furiously excited, her external conduct show- 
ing the violence of her extraordinary internal nervous 
disorders. At these times the great differences in the 
phases of somnambulism appeared in their strongest 
light, but I cannot dwell upon that branch of the sub- 
ject in this treatise. 

When in 1845, with Berzelius and Councillor Hoch- 
berger, I visited Lady Baroness Elise von Seckendorf 
in Carlsbad, I unintentionally threw her into som- 
nambulism by a pass or two made over her right hand 
with a crystal of gypsum. Her conduct continued to 
be so true to the ordinary conventional rules that we 
all three, then knowing little of somnambulism, sup- 
posed she was merely pretending to be somnambulic, 



MENTAL CONDITIONS OF SOMNAMBULISTS. 215 

though she was truly somnambulic in the fullest and 
purest measure. We saw no change, except that she 
"thoued" us ; her language, her pronunciation, her 
opinions, were the same as before ; and that so trill- 
ing a matter as a puss with a stone over a hand, with- 
out even touching It, should overturn the whole spirit- 
ual nature of a person — any such supposition appear- 
ed very absurd to all of us, though elderly men, who 
had seen much of life. But how many hundred simil- 
ar, and even stranger cases have I seen since then ! 

§ 158. Thouj^htfulness of Mrs. Lederer.— Mrs. Le- 
dcrer was so experienced and so educated in somnam- 
bulism, wherewith she had suffered for many years, 
that she addressed Dr. Horst, her physician, and my- 
self not with "thou," but with the customary and con- 
vential "you," (Sie, in German J. And since she was 
usually lively, jocose, and unaffected, she would in 
somnambulir^m ask my pardon, for, she said, liveliness 
was a privilege of somnambulists. Once when her 
physician wanted to make some experiments with odic 
passes on her, she got up and moved her chair to the 
far end of the room, away from the street. I did not 
understand her motive in doing this, and asked the 
cause. She said she did not wish the people across the 
street to see what was going on ; so thoughtful and 
prudent was she in somnambulic sleep. In her waking 
condition she could not have ])een more careful. 
Miss Krueger, in her sonmambulic state, described to 
me accurately the course of her sensations when she 
passed, usually about mid-night, from normal to al>- 
normal sice]). At another time, in somnambulism, she 
described to me, witli instructive exarturrs. the devo- 



216 SOMNAMBULISM AND CEAMP. 

lopment of her cramps. A third time she gave me pre- 
cise information about somnambulic vision when se- 
veral bodies stood before the object to be seen, as in 
looking into the interior of the human body. She had 
so clear a consciousness of her own situation, and she 
was so competent to maintain an intelligent conver- 
sation, that every such meeting with her was peculiar- 
ly instructive. And this happened at a time when her 
somnambulism was so low that she could see nothing 
save a red cloud before her eyes, and I had to lead 
her about. 

§ 159. TrutMulness of Miss Zinkel.—The conduct of 
Miss Zinkel on one occasion shows a queer phase of 
somnambulism. She was conversing in that state with 
me when she suddenly assumed a tone of great inti- 
macy, and said to me, "Yon Reichenbach, I must tell 
thee something in confidence.'' "Well, what is it 1" 
"I have been deceiving thee." "How ?" "I have re- 
ceived a letter from the captain, and have concealed 
it from thee. He insists upon marrying me. I tell 
thee now that I deceive thee in the daytime, so thou 
mayest know it, but thou must not say anything to me 
when I am awake, for thou knowest it would grieve 
and offend me.'"' I promised silence and kept my pro- 
mise ; but I must tell the secret to the reader in con- 
fidence. A wealthy captain in the Imperial army was 
then courting her and she was irresolute whether to 
accept him, and assumed that I was opposed to the 
match, though I said nothing cither for nor against it. 
She had previously, when awake, told me something of 
the affair, but concealed the receipt of the letter. Tu 
this conduct we see a peculiar psychological puzzle, how 



MENTAL COXDITIOXS OF SOMXAMBULISTT 217 

the sensitive was more candid and upright towards 
me in somnambulism than when awake, and she en- 
tered a kind of complaint before me against the waking 
self, forbidding me, at the same time, to raise the veil 
of her somnambulic confidence in the day-time. What 
a singular clianging of two personalities in one and 
the same individual, and all with the consciousness of 
the change. She knew that when awake she was the 
same person ; and betrayed that other one to me ! I 
dare not tell her what she herself told me. She knew 
that when awake she would not know anything of that 
which she did telling me ! But how did she now that ? 
What an incomprehensible conscious double persona- 
lity ! In a similar manner Miss Zinkel often, in som- 
nambulism, bade me never to tell her, when awake, 
that she had been somnambulic. " It would pain and 
grieve me," she would say, and insist that I should 
promise silence. One day I could not resist the desire 
to speak to her about her somnambulism, and, indeed, 
it seemed to pain her to think that she had been som- 
nam])ulic, a state for which she had a great dislike. 
But the queerest part of it occurred the next dily, 
when she again became somnaml)ulic. Siie then gave 
me a severe and formal lecture for having broken my 
promise and betrayed her abnormal condition to her 
when awake. I then had to make sacred asseverations 
that I would never do the like again. 

My friends and myself often talked for hours or 
half-days at a time with Misses Atzinannsdorfer, Rci- 
chel, Sturmann, Krueger, Kynast, Beyer and Zinkol, 
when they were in somnambulic sleej) ; sonn^times our 
conversation was serious, about sonlnambuli.■^m ; some- 
times it was jocose, turnini; on such questions as inte- 

10 



218 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

rest young ladies, and they would take their share in 
the jokes, as though they were in their natural condi- 
tion. A stranger coming in would never have sup- 
posed that any person was in an abnormal state. 
Indeed, Miss Reichel, in somnambulism, often went 
from Hietzing to Vienna, attended to business there, 
and returned home alone through the throng of men 
and wagons in the capital. 

From all this we perceive that somnambulists are 
not like normal sleepers in a dream of merely imagi- 
native ideas, but that they form conceptions, judg- 
ments, conclusions. In this respect somnambulism is 
strongly distinguished from normal sleep. 

§ 160. Attention in somnambulism. — It is well 
known that attention is absolutely necessary to the 
formation of sensuous conception. Thus it happened 
that soldiers engaged in battle have been wounded 
and have not been aware of it until a comrade would 
call their attention to the flow of blood : and we all 
know that when sunk in reflection a thousand things 
are done about us without our noticing them. This 
universal quality of our mind shows itself also in sen- 
sitiveness and in somnambulism. Some examples of 
my experience may be worthy of a place here. When 
several persons visited Miss Atzmannsdorfer, in som- 
nambulism, she usually noticed no one save myself, and 
her conduct was such that there was reason to believe 
she did not perceive the others at all. But if I asked 
her who were with me, she would consider a little 
while and then reply properly. It was evident that 
she did not turn her attention to them until after I 
asked and she then first recognized theii^ presence. 



MENTAL CONDITIONS OF SOMNAMBULISTS. 219 

This lady, as well as Misses Reichel, Girtler, Stur- 
mann, and others would undertake at any time to 
hunt me out, recognize me by feeling my person stand- 
ing silent in the company, and they always succeeded. 
In the beginning, before I knew much of these mat- 
ters, I took up a little magnet in the dark chamber 
and held it to my breast expecting that Miss Atz- 
mannsdorfer would notice it and speak of it. But she 
did not, and after a long delay I expressed my astonish- 
ment. I did not then know that I had weakened its 
light by placing it near my breast ; my stomach, my 
metallic buttons, my hands and fingers, all stronger 
than the magnet, that unless her attention had been 
particularly drawn to the little magnet she would 
never have observed it. To satisfy my doubts I im- 
mediately placed my hand on a single-leaved horse 
shoe magnet with its armature on, and this she per- 
ceived by its light. Many other remarkable instances 
might be given to show that qb in the normal con- 
sciousness, so also in somnambulism and to a still 
greater extent attention is necessary to perception. 
But when they do give attention they often penetrate 
to a depth and distance that astonish us. 

§ 161. Awakin?; from soranambulism.— Here belong 
the phenomena and the manner of awaking from som- 
namljulism, wherein the high degree of clearness in 
the sleepers consciousness becomes, if possible, still 
more evident. 

At first I thought nothing more singular or comical 
than that the somnambulist should say that she wished 
to awake, and would request me to wako her. Miss 
Reichel often made such requests of mc and my 



220 SOMNAMBULISM AND CBAMP 

friends. And when the person, for instance my 
daughter Ottone, did not know how to go to work, 
there was no difficulty on that score, for Miss Reichel 
would at once explain to her precisely what she should 
do to effect the awakening. " Go to yonder drawer," 
she would say, " there you will find a stone wrapped 
up in a paper ; hold it in your left hand, make eight 
passes with it from my breast to my eyes, then four 
passes sidewise from my eyes to the temples, and I 
shall awake." This was done, and the sleeper, called 
back to normal consciousness by the soretic influence 
of these passes, opened her eyes and often was aston- 
ished at the position in which she might find herself. 

§ 162. Miss Atzmaimsdorfer and her linen. — Miss 

Atzmannsdorfer had ordered some linen garments to 
be made for her own use, and they were brought to 
the house at a time when she was somnambulic and 
holding a lively conversation with me. I had the sew- 
ing given to her. She expressed much joy at its receipt, 
but had scarcely looked through it before she said 
" I must be awake to examine these things ; wake me 
up ; do wake me." I did so immediately by means of 
upward passes and then it was necessary that she 
should be told over again that the seamstress had 
come with sewing ; for she had not the remotest recol- 
lection of what had happened while she was somnam- 
bulic. It was therefore for the purpose of being able 
to see her work more clearly that she had anxiously 
desired to be awakened. She was perfectly conscious 
that she was asleep, and she knew from experience 
that her sensuous perception of her linen would not 
be so distinct and accurate in that condition, as in the 



MENTAL CONDITIONS OF SOMNAMBULISTS. 221 

normal waking state. It is scarcely possible that a 
case should occur more significant of the spiritual con- 
dition of somnambulism. I have wakened Miss Kru- 
ger and Miss Blahusch several times in one day at 
their request. Mrs. Lederer would say " It is now 
time for me to go home ; I must now be awakened," 
and as she said so it was done. Her consciousness 
had continued clear and kept measure of the time. 
On one of these occasions Mrs. Lederer wished to 
show what various conditions her somnambulism would 
offer, and she would pass from one to another in the 
course of awakening. In fact I saw her then while re- 
ceiving twenty-five upward passes from her physician, 
pass through four clearly distinct conditions. But 
very clear consciousness, and definite knowledge of 
her disease were necessary to enable her to point out 
to me the various stages of its development as if it 
were the rolling of machinery. At another time, willi- 
out any previous conversation in regard to the matter, 
I wished to try whether I could awaken Mrs. Lederer 
by placing myself silently behind her chair. Our like 
sides were thus brought oi>posite to each other, and 
from this I expected she would be awakened. But she 
perceived my purpose and would not permit me to stay 
there, saying it would wake her uj). She was thus 
clearly conscious of what I was doing, and what in- 
fluence I would have upon her, and drew her inferences 
there from. Miss Kynast also demanded to be waked 
up by me in the dark chamber. Miss Atzmanns- 
dorfer, when somnambulic, instructed my daughter 
Ottone in the art of awakening her in my alisence ; 
she should make passes over her eyes and temples as 
is customary. It often happened that Miss Atzmanus- 



222 SOMNAMBULISM AND CEAMP. 

dorfer announced to me the near approach of her 
spontaneous wakening. She was minutely conscious 
of the course of events within herself, as they ripened 
at the ending of somnambulism. She would say : " I 
will soon awake ; I feel it already in my stomach ; now 
it is on my breast ; now it is on my neck, and when it 
comes into my head I shall be awake f and after the 
lapse of half a minute she really did wake up. Miss 
Zinkel often requested me to wake her up, but some- 
times, when I wished to do so, she would declare it 
premature and hurtful, request me to abstain, and bid 
me to wait quietly until she should wake up sponta- 
neously. This same lady, who of late has had only 
short attacks of sleepwaking, has minutely described 
to me her sensations in waking from weak somnambu- 
lism. A few double passes, given her at her own re- 
quest, brought her to a dim consciousness, a kind of 
halfway position between sleep and waking, as describ- 
ed in Chapter Eirst. Every succeeding pass in- 
creased the clearness of her consciousness, and finally 
she became fully awake, with open eyes ; but even then, 
for about half a minute, her head is giddy. I have 
often observed this giddiness, not only in Miss Zinkel, 
but also in Miss Krueger, who never noticed me imme- 
diately, on awakening, but always rubbed her eyes for 
a long time ; looked with an air of discontent upon 
the dark, dim world ; and came to herself only by de- 
grees. Mrs. Lederer, Misses Reichel, Atzmannsdorfer, 
Beyer, and others acted in the same manner after 
awaking from somnambulism. 

§ 1G3. Ttie ckar co?.scioiisaess of somnambulism. — 
All these examples and observations show that persons 



MEXTAL COXDITIOXS OF SOMNAMBULISTS. 223 

in sonmambulism may have a high spiritual clearness 
and as complete a consciousness of their condition as 
whwi normally awake ; and they further bring to light 
the new psychological fact that in somnambulism there 
is a kind of education, as in the mental deyelopmcnt 
from childhood to manhood. A neophyte somnambu- 
list does not understand his relations to himself and 
the world, as we saw in the case of Miss Zinkel, who 
was confused about herself; she was a somnambulic 
child, but after the condition has often returned, these 
ideas having often recurred, having strengthened them- 
selves by union with other like ideas, and having 
gained room in the soul and height in consciousness, 
they continue to grow clearer, abstract conceptions 
are formed, the reason forms judgments and draws 
conclusions, and the somnambulist is no longer a 
dreamer, but a thoughtful man in the state of sleep. 

Sleep therefore, as a pliysiological cliange of our 
general life, does not prevent the full use of our think- 
ing powers, as the old psychology ventured to assert. 

§ 164. Somnambulism differs from common sleep 
only in profoundness. — Tlie question now presses itself 
upon us. wliy it is not the same in common normal 
sleep. The investigation has not yet advanced far 
enough to answer this question. But this mucli seems 
probable, that the cause is to be found in the inferior 
depth of common sleep. When the senses or the ima- 
gination are strongly influenced by external irritants 
or lively conceptions we awake from common sleep ; 
and for this reason, none of our conceptions can reach 
Buch an exaltation or strength as would suflice to in- 
duce us to act. In somnambulic sleep, on the contrary, 



224 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

the strongest external irritations, cuts, burns, and 
noises, do not suffice to awaken the sleeper ; he is so 
deep that the liveliest thoughts do not interrupt him ; 
lively mental excitements can therefore arise ; he can 
sustain them, and their strength may induce him to 
speak and act without breaking his sleep. Somnam- 
bulism, therefore, appears, in its physiological as well 
as its psychical aspects, only as a deeper kind of sleep, 
and from this greater depth all the somnambulic phe- 
nomena hitherto observed maybe sufficiently explained. 

§ 165. Thouing.— When I repeated to Miss Beyer 
in her normal state the words which she had spoken 
to me the previous day in somnambulism, and she 
heard that she had thoued me, she blushed. At the 
time of our first acquaintance she was almost entirely 
ignorant of her condition in sleep-waking, and she was 
not aware that she addressed everybody as thou. But 
all somnambulists with few exceptions do this. Lady 
Baroness von Seckendorf said to me immediately 
when I had made a pass over her right hand with a 
like crystal pole, " thou hast lamed my arm." Mr. 
Krebs, Mrs. Kienesberger, Misses Weigand, Sturmann, 
Nowotny, Kynast, Kruger, Dorfer, Eeichel, Zinkel, 
Atzmannsdorfer and Blahusch, and Friedrich Weidlich 
said " thou" to everybody when sleeping. Miss Girtler 
did the same, making a formal apology for it. Mrs. 
Lederer was the only distinct exception : she said : 
" you" [Sie in German] to her physician and myself. 
But her physician told me that sometimes previously 
when he attended her, she had thoued him. The 
" you" which she used was therefore the result of a 
spiritual education in somnambulism after long expe- 



MENTAL CONDITIONS OF SOMNAMBULISTS. 225 

rience : when I first saw her, she had out<^rown som- 
nambulic childhood wherein everybody is thoued, and 
had developed herself to the conventional language 
of "you.'' Miss Winter had at times peculiar condi- 
tions of somnambulism in which she would address 
other persons with " you." But Mrs. Joanna An- 
schuetz in the same conditions always said " thou" to me. 
The thouing in sleep-waking belongs in the classes 
of all those phenomena, in consequence of which the 
somnambulists, like the sensitives generally, in their 
whole physiological bearing, stand some steps closer 
to nature than non-sensitives, or rather are not so far 
removed from it. This close relationship to nature 
again coincides with the depth of somnambulic sleep, 
in which the sensitives are farther removed from ordi- 
nary life than ever occurs in other circumstances. 



If)* 



226 SOMNAMBULISM AND CKAMP. 



CHAPTER XYI. 

STATE OF THE MEMORY IN SOMNAMBULISM. 

§ 166. Il€COl!€clloii of occurrences durla^ slee];- 
waliiil^. — Max Krueger, Misses Kynast, Reichel, Bla- 
husch, Nowotny, Beyer, Atzmannsdorfer, and Zinkel, 
Mrs. Lederer, Mrs. Krebs, Friedrich Weidlieh and 
many others, after awaking, had not the slightest re- 
collection of anything that occurred to them during 
somnambulic sleep. When they awoke while engaged 
in speaking or acting, they had not the slightest idea 
from memory of what they had just been saying or 
doing. This is the rule with all somnambulists, and 
hence the common belief that no one preserves any 
recollection in his normal condition, of his ideas and 
doings in sleepwaking. 

But on close examination I have not found this to 
be universally true. Mrs. Kienesberger told me on 
one occasion that a short tiaie previously, when som- 
nambulic, a number of people had stood about her and 
had spoken to her about many things ; she awoke and 
was astonished to find so large a company about her. 
She then told them the dream Avhicli she had had, and 
this supposed dream was nothing more than the. dim 
recollection of the events which had just been really 
occurring in the room. I observed something similar 
in Miss Krueger. While she was recovering from the 
drowsiness of the sleep, she said it appeared to her as 



STATE OF THE MEMORY IN SOMNAMBULISM. 227 

though she had been in the garden among the flowers. 
I questioned her and she told me she had a dream, 
the particulars of which as she stated them, were a 
mere repetition of our conyersations while she was 
somnambulic. Immediately after waking from som- 
nambulism Miss Zinkel told me a dream she bad had ; 
it was nothing more than the conversation I had just 
had with her. But at the end of a quarter of an hour, 
when I wished to speak about it again, she had for- 
gotten it entirely ; she no longer remembered a word 
of her dream. These last cases are precisely like 
those which happened to non-sensitiyes wakened in 
the midst of normal sleep ; immediately after a Awaken- 
ing we remember the last fleeting dream-pictures, but 
at the end of a few minutes they have entirely escaped. 
The recollection of the ideas excited in the dream 
are strong enough to be sometimes remembered when 
awake, but they are not strong enough to get a firm 
hold on the mind and they are soon forgotten, like 
many other events occurring to us while awake but 
not observed attentively. On the other hand I noticed 
in my long intercourse with Miss Atzmannsdorfer that 
thougli she never remembered immediately after wak- 
'injr, what had passed in somnambulism, yet afterwards 
a dream-like recollection would arise when similar 
events occurred to develop the association in her 
mind. If I showed her when awake a scientilic in- 
strument, which I used in experimenting with her in 
somnambulism, she would say it appeared to her as 
tliough she had seen that instrument before, Mrs. 
Ledcu-er would speak still more distinctly in such 
cases. She had often observed that though on awak- 
enins she knew nothing that had pawed in Bomuum- 



228* SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

bulism, yet afterwards a partial recollection of the 
events would arise in her mind. 

§ 167. Different states of Miss Girtler's memory.— 

The somnambulic sleeps of Miss Girtler are peculiar. 
They are irregular in duration, and after waking, two 
conditions are perceptible : one in which she remem- 
bers nothing that happened while she was asleep ; the 
other in which she remembers everything as though 
she had been normally awake. The first condition is 
evidently that of most somnambulists ; the last she 
considers to be a still higher spiritual state. I regret 
that I have not had an opportunity to study the inte- 
resting difference more thoroughly, and must content 
myself now with merely recording the fact here, so 
that it might not be lost for future investigation in 
consequence of its rarity. 

§ 168. Memory better in somnambulism than in nor- 
mal consciousness. — The consideration of the state of 
the memory during sleepwaking itself, is a point of 
much psychological interest. Every somnambulist 
recollects all the records of his memory as clearly as 
if he were awake, yes, he recollects them much more 
clearly than when awake. What he once knew and 
had forgotten he remembers in somnambulism. It is 
known that somnambulists speak tongues which they 
do not understand when awake and if a close investi- 
gation be made for the source of their knowledge, it 
will be found that they knew these tongues in early 
years, but had forgotten them in the course of time 
for the want of practice, and it was supposed that 
nothing remained of them in the memory. But the 



STATE OF THE MEMORY IN SOMNAMBULISM. 229 

traces of these languages, though lost to the normal 
memory, still remained in the mind, and somnambulism 
vas powerful enough to raise them again to clear 
consciousness, to give them for a short time their lost 
freshness, to fill them with a new glow. From this it 
seems probable that the somnambulic sleep has a better 
memory than normal waking. But we find something 
just like this in common normal dreaming ; for instance, 
I cannot call back clearly to my memory ti.e features 
of my deceased wife, who died about twenty years 
ago, no matter how much I strive to do so. But when 
i think of her in dreams her picture reappears before 
me, and I perceive it so distinctly that all the expres- 
sions of her fine features are visible to me in all their 
loveliness. My memory, therefore, is sharper and 
stronger in dream than in waking, and therefore this 
quality belongs not to somnambulic dreaming alone, 
but to all dreaming. It rests, as is known, upon noth- 
ing else than the absence of all influences that miglit 
disturb the memory by the numerous sensuous impres- 
sions filling our minds constantly in ordinary life, and 
preventing us from going down to the dephts of our 
consciousness. The exclusion of these impressions 
gives other ideas more force to the sleepwaker and to 
the ordinary dreamer, and hence their more acute 
memory. 

§ 100. The ideas of one somnambulic fit followed 
up in the next. — Another remarkal)le (piality of som- 
nambulism is, that the sleepwaker, though he has little 
or no recollection in his normal state of what ho 
thought, did, and perceived when somnamV»ulic, yot 
has not forgotten ; for all gomnanibuli.stu liavo h rlenr 



230 SOMNAilBULISM AND CRAMP. 

recollection, while in their abnormal condition, of all 
that they ever did, or mentally perceived in that state ; 
and, in one fit they follow up the labors and trains of 
ideas broken off by the end of the previous fit. 
Miss Nowotny found in her writing desk a knit purse 
not quite finished, but so far done that she must have 
spent several nights working at it. When normally 
awake she knew nothing at all about the origin of the 
purse, save by inference ; she found it lying in her 
locked writing-desk, after she had been bed-ridden for 
some time with illness ; she must have worked at it 
regularly night after night in somnambulism with a 
definite plan. When I spoke with Misses Reichel, 
Atzmannsdorfer, and Kynast, in somnambulism, they 
always knew exactly what they had done in previous 
fits of sleep-waking, what experiments had been made, 
and who had taken part in them. Miss Zinkel, when 
somnambulic, had warned me of dangers threatening 
my life, to be plotted by my enemies in 1853, and 
every time she was somnambulic she came back upon 
these dangers with great earnestness, and always re- 
ferred to what she had said on previous occasions. 
I often observed in Misses Beyer and Sturmann also, 
that when they became somnambulic, they took up the 
thread of thought broken by waking from the previous 
sleep. Since, persons in somnambulism remember at 
the same time, all they have done in the normal con- 
dition, therefore, they possess a richer memory than 
when awake. 

But here, too, -sleepwaking shows an analogy with 
ordinary sleep, for it is well known that there are 
many men who spin out their dreams from night to 
night and yet know nothing of them when awake. 



STATE OF THE MEMORY IX SOMNAMBULISM. 231 

§ 170. Main facts about somnambulic memory. — 

We have now arrived at the following results : 

1. The sleepiL'ciker recollects everything which occur- 
red to him ivhile awake, as well as in previous Jits of 
somnarnhuUsm. 

2. The memory is sharpened and exalted during 
sleepwaking, so that knowledge, once possessed, but for- 
gotten luhen aivake, such as language, is recollected. 

3. After awaking, all this recollection is ordinarily 
lost again, and even the events occurring during the som- 
namhulicft, are forgotten. Sometimes there is a faint 
recollection for a few minutes after aicaking ; sometimes, 
also, a dim imprression remains in the mind for a long 
time. 

4. Somnambulism is not always the same, but con- 
tains many different and not yet investigated conditions, 
one of which, rarely occurring, leaves a fuU recollection 
in the mind after waUng, of all that happened while 
tlie abnormal sleep lasted. 

5. Somnambulism and ordinary sleep have some jjc- 
culiar qualities in common, namely, that after leaking, 
faint, swiftly disajrpearing recollections of drramings 
remain; that in those conditions the mind rcmvml)er8 
impressions j^rthj or entirely forgotten when aicake, 
and that the sleeper remembers trains of thought co7n- 
menced in previons dreams, and continues tofdlow them 
up, though he knows nothing of them when awake. 

6. Somnambulism is a true sleep, but deejter than 
ordinary sleep. Its greater dejjth furnishes the exytla- 
nationfor mx)st of its j)eculiarities, which explanatiim is 
simple, clear and consistent tmth established jyrinnplea 
of psychology. 



232 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

§ 171. Uprightness and vanity.— Somnambulists are 
extremely sensitive to distrust of their honesty and 
doubt of the truth of their statements. When per- 
sons show that they are suspicious that the sleep- 
waker is trying to deceive them, there is usually an 
end to experiments. The somnambulist hates those 
who thus offend him, will have nothing more to do 
with them, and is unwilling to work with them. The 
somnambulic peculiarities of Miss G-irtler brought a 
number of inquisitive friends to see her. "When she 
learned that some of them suspected her conduct of 
being deceitful, she absolutely refused to admit any 
more visitors ; her father had to close the door against 
every one, and her physician with difficulty obtained 
permission for me to see her. I have known many 
similar examples. On the other side I have always 
found them as sensitive to the least dishonesty 
practiced upon them by other persons. An active, 
easily offended sense for honesty and morality, more 
exalted than that ordinarily found in the world, al- 
ways governs them. We have seen that Miss Zinkel, 
in somnambulism, disapproved so much of an insignifi- 
cant violation of uprightness in her normal state, that 
she complained to me of herself. But if we should 
conclude from this that the somnambulists are all thus, 
and that none have been ruined by fate, we should 
commit an error on the other side. I have indeed 
known some somnambulists who did not hesitate to 
openly say what they knew to be false ; but I have 
not mentioned their names in this treatise, and I have 
generally avoided them. They, however, were false 
only when dishonest physicians led them on to fortune- 
telling and to medical quackery, when they had to 



STATE OF THE MEMORY IN SOMXAMBULISM. 233 

avail themselves of the stupidity of others who were 
to be used as tools or dupes. 

Women do not give up their innocent little vanities 
in somnambulism. Miss Atzmannsdorfer knew that 
I disliked all nightcaps. Scarcely had she learned my 
taste in this matter when I observed, that if I surprised 
her lying ill and somnambulic in bed lier first act was 
always to tear off her nightcap hurriedly, and hide it 
before me under the bed so that I should not see her 
in it. Miss Girtler, in sleepwaking, was always care- 
ful to keep her long and beautiful hair in good order. 
On one occasion this same lady, wliile somnambulic, 
spoke with much interest of tlie ceremonies of the 
approaching Corpus Cliristi day, which she wished to 
attend and slie was full of curiosity about the new 
and beautiful bonnet she was to receive that day from 
the mantua-maker. The conduct of Lady Baroness 
von Seckendorf was more studied in sleepwaking 
than when normally awake. Misses Beyer, Weigand, 
Reichel and Sturmann all spoke purer German in som- 
nambulism ; and Miss Weigand spoke with studied 
pathos. This other little things sliowed the natural 
womanly desire, in somnambulism, to j)lcase. 

Vanity is always a little liar ; it leads us to claim 
merits to which we are only half entitled. But while 
it gives us a new evidence of the clearness of con- 
sciousness in sleepwaking, it also shows us that som- 
nambulism, although doing homage to a higher uj)- 
rightness on one side, is not entirely free, on the other, 
from the weaknesses of selfishness and untruth. 



234 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 



CHAPTER XYII. 

THE NATURE OF SOMNAMBULISM. 

§ 172. Co-existent negative and positive od. — We 

have seen (in chapter iii) that somnambulism is an od- 
negative, and cramp an od-positive condition. We 
then drew the conclusion that two states so diametri- 
cally opposite to each other, could co-exist simulta- 
neously in our organism only by virtue of the fact, 
that the positive and negative forms of od may meet 
without destroying or neutralizing each other. That 
this actually is the case, I have clearly shown in many 
places. And that this may and often is the case in 
the human body, is abundantly shown by the somnam- 
bulic phenomena which I have recorded one after 
another. 

Common sleep begins by the abandonment of all 
mental activity, with a quiet forgetting of everything 
that occupied the attention and activity of the mind 
through the day. The spiritual animal life ceases, and 
its place is occupied by the unconscious negative. The 
forward part of the brain sinks into rest. If the 
mind is filled with care, anxiety, misery, sorrow, anger, 
love, or any mental activity, sleep is driven away ; 
the irritated cerebrum refuses to go to rest ; the spirit- 
ual activity will not give place to the vegetative, and 



THE XATURE OF SOMNAMBULISM. 235 

sleep is impossible. This often li«appens among non- 
sensitives, and we must expect to find it much ol'tcner 
among the more susceptible and irritable sensitives. 

Even in ordinary sleep the sensuous perception is 
benumbed ; sight is gone entirely ; the hearing is dull, 
slight irritations of the senses are not noticed. Many 
people sleep so firmly that they must be well shaken 
before they will awake. In somnambulism the senses 
are still more benumbed. Sleepwakers may be pinch- 
ed, cut, beaten with rods, (of which I have given 
many examples from my own experience) burned, their 
limbs may be amputated, even their breasts cut off and 
they will not awake. It follows that somnambulism 
is a firmer, deeper sleep than the deepest ordinary 
sleep. The higher the sensitiveness of the sleepwaker 
is, the more difficult, even to impossibility, is it to 
awaken him by sensuous irritations. High sensitives 
sleep so very deeply, particularly when passes have 
been made over them in sleep, that as blisses Reichel, 
Zinkel, and Krueger said, it was impossible to wake 
them through the senses. 

§ 173. Soretic influences treasured up in the ncmc- 
tic statet — But we know how to awaken somnambulists 
easily — namely, by soretic treatment with upward 
passes towards the nervous centre. They awake 
readily when the sensitiveness is low ; even a single 
pass may suffice. It is different with dcmi-and high- 
sensitives. Repeated passes may fail to awaken thorn, 
especially if they have not slept long. Miss Reichel 
required from eight to fifteen passes to awaken her. 
I had often to give Miss Beyer from twelve to sixteen 
passes before she awoke. Miss Atzinannsdorfor never 



236 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 

awoke until she had fifteen or twenty passes. I saw- 
Miss Lederer receive about thirty passes before wak- 
ing. It follows that the influence of all these upward 
passes given before waking, was preserved in the 
brain, although the person was not yet awake. While, 
therefore, the somnambulist's condition, on one side, 
under certain negative influences, was nemetic, her 
condition, on the other side, derived from the passes, 
was soretic, both existing together in full somnambu- 
lism. We therefore discover here the important fact 
that, in a sensitive and somnambulic person, both con- 
ditions can exist together — that which creates som- 
nambulism and that which induces cramp, the nemetic 
and soretic, the od-negative and the od-positive. 

§ 174. Why sleepwalkers clamber out on roofs.— 

This furnishes us, then, with a key to the explanation 
of the most complex phenomena of somnambulism. I 
shall refer to a few of them. A sensitive person often 
became somnambulic, but remained in her bed. Sud- 
denly it was observed that she arose, went out of the 
window, aad took dangerous walks on the cornice of 
the house. This was Miss Sturmann, in Ferdinand- 
street, Vienna. So with Lady Baroness von Natorp ; 
she remained constantly in her chamber, but unex- 
pectedly her night gown was found in the hall. The 
members of the Rainer family were uneasy every night 
at certain hours. What kind of times were these for 
all these sensitives ? It was when the full moon and 
its od-positive rays influenced them and made them 
active. While they were in a predominating od-nega- 
tive condition, the moonshine had an od-positive effect 
upon the whole house and its occupants. The influence 



THE NATURE OF SOMNAMBULISM. 237 

upon the somnambulists was not strong enouo-h to 
disturb them. Affected by the light fine od-positive 
influences, their brains were excited to activity. They 
arose from their beds, and since tlieir condition was 
mainly od-negative, and the moon's rays od-positive, 
the sensation was agreeable, and hence the untanieable 
longing of somnambulists to get into the full glare of 
the moonshine ; hence also the singular clambering 
upon roofs, which has no other purpose than to get 
where the_moon's rays will strike the sleeper without 
obstruction, and where the light can also be seen on 
surrounding objects. Miss Sturmann when somnam- 
bulic, said to Professor Lippich, with a kind of delight, 
that moonshine was an enjoyment, too deep to be 
described by any words. We laughed at the singular 
earnestness of the sleeper, because we did not tlicn 
(July 1844) understand the meaning of her expressions ; 
but their profound meaning is now as intelligible 
for all. 

§ 175. Weak soretic irritations causing activity. — 

Weak od-positive or soretic irritations excite the sen- 
sitives, as I have shown. When Misses Blahusch, 
Atzmannsdorfer, Rupp, and others began to get drowsy 
in my dark chamber, a single upward pass sufficed to 
drive away their somnolency. But if I gave them 
more passes than were necessary to keep them awake, 
I created a feeling of uneasiness, headache, stomach- 
ache, uncomfortable warmtli, and finally cramps. 
Similar sensations are made when upward passes are 
made over a somnambulic sensitive, as when he is 
exposed to any od-positive influences. In siinplo 
somnambulism he sleeps quietly ; but when weak or 



238 SOMNAMBULISM AND CEAMP. 

moderate od-positive and soretic influences affect him, 
they do not wake him up ; his sleep is so deep that as 
sensuous irritations will not awaken him, so neither 
will slight odic irritations. He sleeps, but not soundly. 
As a healthy man with an overladen stomach sleeps, 
though in a restless manner, so a sensitive in somnam- 
bulism continues to sleep, but uneasily when moderate 
soretic influences are at work on him. He begins to 
speak, arises from his bed, walks about, and now b(^ 
comes a sleepwaker. This restlessness may be induced 
by causes apparently the most insignificant, such as 
lying with the head to the west 5 the proximity of a 
wall to the back of a sleeper lying on his right side ; 
the proximity of a stove ; a persistent southwest wind ; 
the light of the full moon ; a dog or cat lying near the 
feet ; a large looking glass ; a piano, and a thousand 
other little circumstances of which nobody thinks in 
ordinary life. They excite the od-negative somnam- 
bulist positively, and incite him to activity without 
breaking his deep sleep. Mental excitements operate 
in the same manner. A somnambulist while asleep 
creates ideas ; if his mind fixes itself on care, anxiety, 
danger, desires, or passions, the corresponding 
thoughts arise in his mind and exercise an od-posi- 
tive influence on his brain, as I have hitherto ex- 
plained. Every mental agitation arising in the brain 
operates upon it like an upward pass ; it does not 
wake him up, but impels him to action, which then 
takes place if the sleep be not broken. The som- 
nambulists work, talk, laugh, weep, write love-letters 
and poems, send for physicians, walk out on roofs, go 
out barefoot into the snow ; their external senses 
are totally without feeling ; sleep holds them captive ; 



THE NATURE OF SOMNAMBULISM. 239 

the spiritual activity has received their impressions 
and occupied their place. 

§ 176. Conclusion.— We now come to the follow- 
ing conclusion : — 

Somnamhulism may he separated into two formal, 
different hut coexistent, and comhined cc/nditions. It is 
not a simple affection ; it is not an independent disease, 
to wldch an immediate curative treatment can he apqAied; 
hut it is a compMcated ahnormal phenomenon ; its deepest ' 
foundation is sensitiveness, without which there can he 
no sleepwaking. It is^ therefore^ horn with the 
possessor^ and is awakened and exalted by varioxis 
accidental psychical and moral disturbances of 
health. In its proper nature, it is od-7iegative 
combined more or less with od-posstive soretic exter- 
nal or internal influences; it is a mixed od-negative 
and od-positive condition of the nervnis systeia. 



TRAXSLATOirS APPIlXniX. 



TRANSLATOR'S APPENDIX. 

The folloTving extracts from various authors, confir- 
matory of Reichenbach's statements and theory may bo 
not uninteresting to the reader : — 

*' However astonishing, it is now proved beyond all ra- 
tional doubt that in certain abnormal states of the nervous 
organism, perceptions are possible throngh other than the 
ordinary channels of sense."— 5ir William Hamilton. 

*'The most cautious philosopher has no right absolutely 
to reject facts thus attested, because he cannot see their 
explanation; and aljove all, he has no right to brand the 
witness with the charge of deceit or imposture, without full 
and careful inquiry. If he will not or cannot investigate, let 
him, in. decency, be silent." — Prof. Wm. Gregory— Letters on 
Mesmerism — Let . XIII, f. 14. 

"It is a very obvious princi]^, although often forgotten 
in the pride of prejudice and of controversy, that what has 
been seen by one pair of human eyes is of force to coimter- 
vail all that has been reasoned or iruessed at by a thousand 
h u m a n u n d (' r s t a n d i 1 1 gs . " — Thns. Cfui htiers. 

" We stand before the dawning of a new day for science, 
— a new discovery, surpas>ing any that has hitherto been 
made, which promises to afford us a key to some of the most 
recondite secrets of nature, and thus to open up to our view 
a new world. "^ — Ifvf eland. 

'*Uiialarmal by the ajiparent strangeness and incongruity 
of the phenomena to be investipited, we should call to niiiul 
how frequently appear.nnces of external n:ilure, pu/./.linz at 
first sight aud seemingly irrcconcilalilc with each other, have 



244 translator's appendix. 

all been solved and harmonized by a reference to some one 
pervading principle, and should thus be led to surmise that 
the irregularity and variations of the Mesmeric world may 
be found, upon mature observation, less inexplicable than a 
careless spectator could imagine." — Rev. C. H. Townshend. 
" In every case the boldness and acuteness which lead a 
man to take new views of a subject and to combat ancient 
prejudices are in his favor. There is an innate consciousness 
attendant on correct observation, which upholds him and 
encourages him to war with the world. The sudden light 
that has struck him is like a light from heaven, and brings 
conviction to his heart. His eyes are not deluded but shar- 
pened by desire. lN"o other person can have that intimate 
zeal, that interest in the inquiry which urges him onward. 
His all is at stake, and consequently no one is so strict with 
him as he is with himself. Who can compare the cursory 
and partial views of the great body of mankind with his ? 
We may call him a visionary or a heretic, but remembering 
the slow but certain triumph of Harvey and Galileo, we 
should be cautious how we brand him with epithets which 
may recoil upon ourselves." — Toionshend, Book 1, sec. 2. 

"When we know that there is a medium permeating in 
one or other of its forms, all substances whatever, and that 
this medium is eminently capable of exciting sensations of 
light, when we take this in conjunction with a heightened 
sensibility in the percipient person, rendering him aware of 
impulses whereof we are not cognizant, we are no longer 
inclined to deny a fact or suppose a miracle." — Ih. III. 4. 

" 'Is not vision,' as Newton says, 'performed chiefly through 
the vibrations of this medium, excited in the bottom of the 
eye by the rays of light, and propagated through solid, pel- 
lucid and uitiform capillamenta of, the optic nerves into tlie 
place of sensation. And is not hearing performed l)y the 
vibrations of this or of some other medium, excited in the 
auditory nerves by the tremors of the air, and propagate 1 



TBanslator's appendix. 245 

throngh the solid pellucid and uniform capillamenta of tliose 
nerves into the place of sensation ? And so of the other sen- 
ses.' Admit this, and the mysteries of sensation in sleep- 
waking stand revealed. When once we see clearly (and see 
we must, if we consider nature aright,) that the communica- 
tion between all portions of the uuivers is continuous and 
incapable of interruption— that there is a pervading medium 
fining all things, permeating all— the extended sphere of 
mesmeric faculties appears no longer miraculous." lb. Ill, 4. 

"Productive of the efifects called mesmeric, there is an 
action of matter as distinct as that of light, heat or elec- 
tricity, or any other of the 'imponderable agents,' as they 
are called."— iJ. IV. 

" It seems to me there is every reason to beUeve that the 
principle of mesmeric action is a disturbance of equilibrium, 
and that the mechanical effects may be explained by differ- 
ences of positive and negative, of plan and minds, in the 
mesmerizer and the patient." — lb. IV. 

"E. A." one of Townshend's mesmeric subjects, who per- 
ceived things by the forehead, would occasionally receive 
information relative to external objects by the back of his 
head, the side or the top ; but he seldom did this spontan- 
eously, and would always say it was a great effort and did 
him harm.— 76. ///, 3. 

** Anna M."" was very sensitive to any tojich on her fore- 
head, though apparently dead to feeling elsewhere. — lb. 

" Ammonia at her no.se had no effect, but placed to her 
forehead made her draw back with affected respiration, and 
moreover exhibit action in the mu.sdes of the nose, which 
last circumstance more especially adds to the presumption 
that the external impact, in all mesmeric cosk'h, though \y&- 
ginning at an unusual point, is finally transferred to the 
accustomed nerves of sen.sation.'" — lb. 

A lady told C. II. T. that when hir datij^hter was in a 
cataleptic fit she could hear only at the |»it <»f her Hlomaeh; 



246 translator's appendix. 

and once when her daughter standing in the middle of a 
morning bath was taken with a fit, the mother called to her 
in vain, till she held her mouth close to the water and called, 
when she was roused from her catalepsy, as she usually was 
when she was called so that she could hear. — Ih. 

"E. A.**^ with his eyes shut was able to read the smallest 
type, — Ih. 

"E. A."*^ played a piece of music which he had never seen 
before, from a book placed at some feet from him. 

Once when mesmerized and led to a place where he had 
never been, he" described its features properly and the form 
and position of the distant mountains. 

His power of vision or perceiving objects which we perceive 
only by vision, was strongest in his forehead, but appeared 
to reside in all parts of his head. 

When a set of colored eye-glasses were given to him, he 
raised a blue one to his forehead and said, "everything looks 
blue to me,'''' and he named the tints of the other glasses. 
The eminent Dr. Foissac, of Paris, was witness on this oc- 
casion. 

E. A. had two thick towels over his head and reaching to 
his hips, and still was able to read, holding the book opposite 
his forehead. These towels impeded his power of vision 
somewhat but he could still read. 

He could tell a card hidden behind a book. 

Sometimes I placed a card in a book with his finger in, 
holding the book slightly open where the card was ; E. A. 
told the card. If the book were closed he could not tell it. 

Sometimes he said he could see through the book; some- 
times he said that he saw by vibrations of a medium which 
could turn corners. Sometimes when he found it difficult to 
tell a card he would ask to breath on it. 

I was inclined to imagine that the whole nervous system 
of B. A. shared something of the percipient faculty mani- 
fested more particularlv in his head. 



translator'- appendix. 247 

E. A. could read in perfect darkness after some practice ; 
at first it was difficult. He liked to have hold of one of C. 
H. T's hands or to have it on his forehead. He would also 
beg him to breath on the thing to be seen. — lb. 

" The concentration of mind in mesmerism is such as I 
should imagine to be unattainable under auy other condition: 
all the bodily organs being, as it were, annulled, there arc 
none of those conflicting consciousnesses, which in actual life 
destroy each other, like meeting waves in water. Whatever 
source of perception mesmerized persons possess, appears 
rather to consist in one sense than in many; in one sense 
which can become each the others, so that he who exercises 
it seems to become by turns, a hearing, seeing, or feeling 
unity. ""^ — lb. 

E. A., when his eyes shut, in natural somnambulism, 
would play pieces of music on his flute from the book, turn- 
ing the pages over at the proper places, and he would do 
this in the dark — the music being pieces that he was unable 
to play in his waking state witiiout using tlie notes. — ]b. 
II., 3. 

Anna M. could hear a watch tick at her forehead, or at 
her stomach, or at T.'s ear; but not at her own car. — lb. 

" It has appeared to me that the mesmerized possess sim- 
ilar perceptions of sound apart from the natural sense of 
hearing, and that they require certain conductors, in order 
to make them ajiprehend a regular series of aerial vibrations. 
Be it remarked, however, that the degrees of this isolation 
from soimds, considered as sounds, depends on the itensity 
of their mesmeric sleep ; for it sliould ever be kept in mind 
that mesmeric sleep-waking has its shades and f^rjidations, 
varying from consciousness fully retained to its faintest twi- 
light, or utter extinction.^' — lb. 11., 'S. 

" The nerves of sensation in mesmeric patients arc of thcra- 
selves quite estranged from their usual modes of ai'tion ; and 



248 translator's appendix. 

if the patient experiences sensation, it must be by some other 
than the usual modes of nervous action.'''' — Ih. 

Anna M. said: "In the mesmeric state I have only one 
mode of knowing things ; and whether I see them, smell them 
or feel them, it is all the same. — lb. 3. 

The Seeress of^Prevorst said, "I can find whatever I will 
upon my plate with the spoon; I know well where it is; but 
I cannot tell whether I see or feel it; and so with regard to 
all other objects; I know not whether I see or feel them." 

" In the little I have seen, I have yet seen a patient walk 
about with her eyes shut, and well blinded besides, holding 
the knuckles of one hand before her as a seeing lantern.''^ — 
Dr. Herman Mayo. 

Dr. Mayo states that, "at his suggestion /' he does not say 
whether in his presence, presented cards to the new visual 
organ of a young lady in a trance, not looking at the cards 
himself, or knowing what they were till afterwards, and she 
told them correctly. 

Dr. Mayo relates, on the authority of a Mr. J. W. William- 
son, of Wickham, several cases of persons entranced, who 
could see with the back of the head and with the fingers. 

Dr. Delpit, inspecting physician of the waters at Bareges, 
states that a young lady of thirteen, was subject to being 
entranced, and in that state could not see with her eyes, but 
could read by placing her fingers on the letters. 

Baron de Fortis records the case of a somnambulist ser- 
vant-girl who waited at the table at Aix with her eyes shut, 
and saw with her fingers, the palm of her hand and her el- 
bow. 

Dr. Mayo says that, in 1838, he saw in the possession of 
Mr. Bultell, letters from an eminent provincial physician of 
England, describing a person who was sometimes entranced, 
and then her senses were not in the proper organs, but the 
bit of the stomach, who could see objects at a distance, 
through walls and houses, could read the thoughts of others 



translator's appendix. 240 

far or near, could foresee future events, could see her own 
inside illuminated, and could tell what was wrong in the 
health of others. Mr. Bultell examined this patient and l)orc 
testimony to the wonderful character of her |)Owers. 

Dr. Petetin an eminent civil and military physician of 
Lyons, in a memoiral on catalepsy published about 1790, 
records the case of a young married woman who fell into a 
trance, and in that case could not hear at her eur, but lieard 
at the pit of the stomach, saw all through her body as if it 
were transparent, without being told said that Petetin had 
a headache and foretold truly its course and termination, 
and discovered and read a letter which he had in his poekcl. 

Dr. Petetin also records the case of a young lady of Lyons 
who, while in a trance, brouglit on by the firing of cannon, 
saw him fighting to drive away the revolutionary tyrants, 
and foretold the sad events of the 2yth Sept., 7th and Sth 
of October, 1790, and the cruel proscriptions issued by the 
committee of Public Safety. 

Dr. Petetin and Dr. Prost record the case of Madan.e de 
Saint Paul, who was entranced and in that po.sition saw 
things passing at the distance of quarter of a mile (through 
interposing walls and hou.ses) and read the thoughts of |)er- 
sons about her. 

" Dr. Haddocks' clairvoyant subject in the magnetic sleep, 
as I [Dr. Gregory] saw more than once, could see |KTfectIy 
what passed beiiind her, her eyes being closed; or anything 
placed in such a position that had her eyes been ojrmi, she 
could not have seen it : she could also see very often all that 
passed outside of the door, and when I was there told us 
how many servants of the hotel were listening at the dmir 
in hopes of hearing wonders. She would also tell wliat woh 
doing in the room above or below her. In short nhe fre- 
quently e.xiiibited <!lHirvoyance in every form, not only in 
those just mentioned but also in that of seeing priiit« and 
pictures shut up in boxes. Hesides seeing /arious iusUiicex 

II* 



250 translator's appendix. 

of direct clairvoyance, I was able to satisfy myself that Dr. 
Haddocks' experiments were made with the greatest car3 
and jiidgmeiit: that he was particularly well acquainted with 
the various causes of error and confusion, very careful to 
avoid them, and that in short his accounts of such experi- 
ments as I had not see-n were entirely trustworthy." — Pro- 
fessor Wm. Gregory — Part II. — Case 44. 

Mrs. Anna Cora Mowatt (now Ritchie) was mesmerized 
during illness. While mesmerized she was a clairvoyant. 
She says: 

" I was annoyed at being told thai I had spoken, done, 
or written things of which I had no recollection. Numerous 
poems were placed in my hands, which, I was informed, I 
had improvised as rapidly as they could be taken down, the 
subjects having been given haphazard, by any person present. 
It was no particular gratitication to be assured that I had 
never produced anything as good before. Nor was it any 
consolation to be toLl that in sleep-waking I was far more 
sensible, more interesting and more amial>le than in my or- 
dinary state." 

Her religious doctrines in the mesmeric state were those 
of Swedenborg. 

She could tell what her mesmerlzer was eating. She could 
read, write and work in the dark. She recognized objects 
hidden in a handkerchief and held to her forehead. 

She predicted correctly a severe illness which was to come 
upo»i her after some days, and prescribed the treatment. 
The attack was a congestion of the brain. — Mrs Mowaifs 
Aulobiograp/iy, Ch. IX. 

Ij^abella D , when mesmerized, could hear words wliii-- 

pered on the further end of a string fifteen yards long, one 
end of which she held in her hand. — Lung oil Mesmerism, 
Ch. V. 

The Chevalier Filipj)!, of Milan, doctor of medicine, and 
a most determined opponent of mesmerism, has ackuowled-jed 



251 TRAXSLATOR'S APPENDIX. 

to me that some of his patients, more particularly women 
under their confinement, when suffering from nervous excite- 
ment have distinguished the smallest objects in darkness 
which appeared to him complete. — Townshend III, 3. 

Barth had a patient, E. S., a young girl, who could see 
her whole body and its organs as if transparent or highly 
translucent. — See BariUs Mesmerist's Manual, Chajpter on 
Prevision. 

"The sleep-walker sees colors in the dark, and that fact 
is proof that the efficient cause of vision is the vibration of 
another medium than light, and is not dependent on the an- 
terior mechanism of the eye/^ — C. H. T. 

A young man who was thrown into mesmeric sleep in 
three minutes on the first attempt, describes liis feelings tlius: 
" The moment you pointed your fingers at me I felt uncom- 
fortable. I dared not meet your gaze ; a sensation of heat, 
resembling a stream of electricity, commenced at my forehead 
and followed the course of your hands down to the pit of my 
stomach. I could not open my eyes. I knew I was sitting 
on a chair before yon, and the last idea in my mind before 
falling fast asleep was this — Shall I ever be allowed to rise 
again. ""^ — Esdaile's, Note to Chap. VII. 

When a magnet was held towards Anna M. she exhibited 
convulsive movements in her hands When questioned in 
regard to her sensations she replied, " I feel as if I were be- 
ginning to be mesmerized, but not pleasantly: I feel cold."" 
— Townshend 11^ 3. 

"The eflV'cts which precious stones produce upon sleep- 
walkers are also curious. In three cases where 1 had the 
opportunity of making experiments of the kind, I fouml a 
certain correspondence of sensation.'" — Townshend. 

"E. A."" asserted tnat when mesmerized a vapor proceeded 
from the magnetizer and seemed to i)enetrate and pervade 
his frame. — Townshend. 

"It seems to me that irre;fularity in thu distrilmtio i ot' 



translator's appendix. 252 

the nervous energy is at the bottom of all the mesmeric 
symptoms, however produced, whether naturally or- arti- 
ficially; and I suspect the same effects may follow a state of 
exhaustion or repletion of the nervous system. If I might 
venture on so material an illustration, I should say that the 
first effects produced in the system by mesmerism, may be 
likened to a river rolled back upon its source by a heavier 
body of water, stagnating in its channel and unable to re- 
sume its natural course till the opposing tide subsides. 

From all I have seen, I cannot but believe that there is 
an influence of some kind that passes from one person to 
another, when one of two persons is mesmerized in the way 
I have described ; that in fact there is a virtual transfusion 
of some vital agent from the one body into the other." — Dr. 
Esdaile. 

" That [in the mesmeric trance] the nervous sensibility 
has retreated from the surface and the organs of sense, is 
evident to all observers, by the universal insensibility; and 
the condition of the brain and muscular system would seem 
to indicate that they labor under the effects of this revulsion. 
The means, used to demesmerize particular organs and the 
brain itself, appear to act by determining the nervous cur- 
rents back to the surface, thereby relieving the deeper or- 
gans from the load that oppressed them.*'"' — Ih. 

" That the mesmeric torpor of the nerves and brain does 
not arise from sanguine congestion is often strikingly and 
beautifully illustrated by the actions of persons suddenly 
awoke from the trance. They open their eyes wide, and at 
the same moment their faculties are restored, but it is seen 
that the pupil is dilated and insensible to light. This they 
also immediately become aware of; they know that their 
eyes are open, and that they ought to see, but do not. Tho 
thought fills them with horror, and with a fearful cry they 
bury their faces in their hands like persons struck by light- 



translator's appendix. 253 

ning; but this soon passes off, and the retina recovers its 
sensibility by a little rubbing of the eyes." — Ih. 

I think the power of somnambulism to bring back to 
the memory, knowledge long lost to the normal conscious- 
ness, cannot be sufficiently accounted for by the mere relief 
of the mind from distracting sensuous impressions and con- 
flicting thoughts. A similar supernormal acuteness of memo- 
ry has been observed in insanity, delirium, high fever, in 
persons whose brains had been wounded, and iu persons 
under the influence of hasheesh, chloroform, &c. Several 
gentlemen to whom very sudden and serious accidents have 
happened, have told me that at the instant when death seem- 
ed to be' about to strike them, they saw every act of their 
lives. In all these ca.ses I imagine that there must be a 
rush of blood to the brain, an increased mental activity. 
May it not be that every impression ever made in the mind 
is recorded on the fibres of the brain, and that those records 
not often used finally get dusty and almost obliterated, and 
that they can then only be read when illuminated by an 
extraordinary flow of blood ? 

J. S. H. 



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VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION, 12mo 1 25 

HITTELL'S EVIDENCES AGAINST CHRISTIANITY, 

2 vols, l2mo 2 50 

HELL ON EARTH ; or, an Expose of the Infernal Machina- 
tioiibJind Horrible Atrocities of Whited Sepuleherism : 

toirethor with a Plan for its Final Overthrow 18 

ROUSSEAU S CDNKKSSIONS, Complete, 2 vols, l2mo 2 50 
FOIRIER'^^ SOCIAL DKSTINY OF MAN. 8vo....$l and 1.50 
HOW TO GKT A DIVORCE ; t<.<i.ther with the Laws of 

all ihf States in the Union on this subject 25 

B'-COACCIOS DKC\MKfi')N, IJmo ill.istrat.-d 1 00 

THE LIBRARY OF LOVE; 21mo. wirh engravinjrs. Tho 
nj«)siex<|uisitel\ amorous and recheiche eflTusions 
ever oenned. CMmprisinji : 
(»VM»S .Wir OK LOVE, mid .Amorous Works entire, 50 

KISSES OF SKCUNDUS AND BONNEFOVS 50 

DRYUE.^'S FABLES 60 



ME. BLANCHARD'S PUBLICATIONS. 

THE EVIDENCES AGAINST CHEISTIANITY. 

By John S. Hittell. Second Edition $2,50 

This will be a large work of about 600 pages. It includes all 
the main evidences and arguments, which have been brought 
against the Bible, from the time of Celsus to the present day, in 
Greek, Latin, English, French, or German. The following are the 
titles of the chapters : 

Domain of Reason iu Matters of Religion. — What is Christianity? — Jehovah, a Bar- 
barons Divinity. — Jesus not a Perfect Hero. — Paul an Impostor. — David 
a Scoundrel. — RebelUousness of the Chosen People. — Biblical Superstitions. 
— False Cosmogony. — Fabulous History. — Contradictory Statements. — In- 
consistent Doctrines. — Bad Morality. — Doctrines not Original. — Natural 
History of Christianity. — Biblical Miracles. — Biblical Prophecies. — Wit- 
ness of the Spirit. — Growth of the Church. — ^No Literary Merit. — Books 
not Genuine. — Books not well preserved. — Christian Mysteries. — Evils ol 
Christianity. — Physiology vs. a Future State. — ^Pantheism v. Anthropomor- 
phism. — Moral Accountability. — Absolute Truth undiscoverable by Man. 
— Review of the Etddence. — How replace Christianity ? 

Referring to the first Edition, — a mere skeleton of the present 
work, — the Westminster Review, for July, 1856, said : " We would 
recommend those who still think that they can maintain the position 
of the infallibility of Scripture to obtain, if they can, a little book 
entitled, ' The Evidences against Christianity.' Scriptural discrepan- 
cies, contradictions, and difficulties are therein very cleverly put to- 
gether." 

A PLEA FOE PANTHEISM. By John S. Hit- 
TELL. 12mo. paper covers, QQ pages Price 
25 cents. 

A NEW SYSTEM OF PHEENOLOGT. By 
John S. Hittell. 12mo. 75 cents. Pushes 
tlie Science to its conclusions. 

FOUEIER'S SOCIAL DESTINY OF MAN: or, 
THEORY OF THE FOUE MOVEMENTS. 
Translated by Henry Clapp, Jr., with a Trea" 
tue 011 the Functions of the Human Faasions, 
and ftn outline of Foumer's Systevx of Social 
Science^ by Albert Brisbane. 8 vo. $1,50. 
Do. paper cover $1,00, 



MR. i5LANCHARD's PUBLICATIONS. 5 

HISTORY OF PRIESTCRAFT IN ALL AGES 
AND NATIONS. By William Howitt. One 
handsome volume 12mo. Price 75 cents. 

THE CREED OF CHRISTENDOM ; its Founda 
tions and Superstructure. By William Rathbone 
Greg. One volume 12mo. (Matches " Feuerhcwh's 
Essence of Christianity.'') Price $L3T. 

" Will rank high with those critical and enidite Avorks wliicn nave of 
late cleared up so many obscure matters in the history of religion, cor- 
rected so nianv false' theories, dispelled so many errors, and done so 
much to bring into harmony, science, and religion, the voice of nature 
and the voice of God." — Economist. 

" In a calm, dispassionate manner, and in a style peculiarly elegant, 
and, at the same time, argumentative, the momentous questions of rev- 
elation, ChristiaTiity, and a future state are discussed. There is no dog- 
matism, no assertion, no arriving with an undue haste at irrelevant con- 
clusions in its pages ; hut there are to be found all the evidences of pro- 
found study, scholarship, much reading, more thinking, and certainly 
there is every indication of sincerity and truth. It will arouse a spirit 
of inquiry where that is dormant, and will take its place among those 
suggestive a:id intelligent works which are now becoming the moral 
alphabets of a new generation." — Weekly Dispatch. 

" He appears to us to have executed his task with thorough honesty of 
purpose, and in a spirit essentially reverential— in a style clear, anima- 
ted, and often elo(iuent, and, for one who disclaims the possession of 
learning, with no small amount of critical knowledge and philosophic 
endowment." — Projective Review. 

" No candid reader of the * Creed of Christendom ' can close the book 
irithout the secret acknowledgment that it is a model of honest investi- 
cation and clear exposition ; that it is conceived in the true spirit of 
serious and faithful research ; and that whatever the author wants of 
Dehig an ecclesiastical Christian, is plainly not essential to the nobl* 
^idance of life, and the devout earnestness of the affections." — West- 
tniikster ^^*^id 

FABLES FROM BOCCACCIO AND CHAUCER. 
By John Dryden. With a Memoir of Dryden, and 
two eleL^aiit Steel En^n-avings. (Matdies Oid.'^ 
Price 50 c^Mits. 



MR. BLANCHARD S PUBLICATIONS. 

THE DECAMERON, OR TEN DAYS ENTER^ 
TAINMENT ; from the Italian of Boccaccio. 
New Edition, in which are restored the many pas- 
sages omitted in former editions. Embellished 
with eighteen engravings on steel. By G. Stand- 
fast. With a notice of the Life and Writings 
of Boccaccio. Elegant 12mo of 500 pages, taste- 
fully bound. Price $1,00. 

" One oi the gayest literary feasts that ever regaled human taste." — 
CampbeWs Life of Petrarch, 

" Boccaccio wrote this work, like several others, in order to pleaae 
his beloved Princess Maria. It may console unfortunate authors to 
learn that even the Decumerone of Boccaccio, which now charms all 
Europe, was at first ill received by a portion of the Italian community. 
They complained that it was too free in its tone of morality ; and, per- 
haps, if it were to be written over again, something might be corrected 
in that way. Even a hundred years later, the Florentines, in a fit of 
morality, condemned Boccaccio's works to the flames. But, as you can- 
not extirpate opinions by burning those who entertain them, so there i« 
no process of incremation that wiU destroy works of genius when they 
have once come out — their spirit is as immortal as the God that inspired 
them. 

" Some of the objections that have been brought against the Decam- 
erone maybe too just, but I claim the indulgence of judging of Boc- 
caccio by his whole effect. I would ask if his faults as a writer are not 
more than atoned for by his love of truth, by his faith to Nature, by his 
joyous benevolence, and by his honest hatred of hypocrisy, fraud, and 
bigotry. I would ask also what it was that stirred up the enmity which 
first repudiated his Decamerone. Was it the love of innocence and vir- 
tue ? No such thing ! it was the anger of imposters, of voluptuous 
priests, and of exposed sinners of every kind, that armed a host of fu- 
ries against him. He was accused of sacrilegiously rending the veil 
that had concealed the vices of the church — of therefore being an hereti- 
cal reformer. And so in truth Boccaccio was, without knowing it him- 
self. I consider him, as well as Dante and Petrarch, to have been, all 
three of them, great practical reformei's, though unconscious patriarchs 
of the Reformation. At a later period, the Florentine ciutics, with Gcr- 
onimo Savonarola at their head, preached pubhcly on the danger of even 
reading the Decamerone. In 1497, the works of Boccaccio, the Mor 
pante, and a number of indecent pictures, were unfairly asaociatsd in 
martyrdom with the works of men of genius, and consumed by fire, for 
tlie enUghtenment of the people, on the last day of the public jubilee. 
This circumstance accounts for the scarcity of copies of the Centonovello 
in the fourteenth century. But, in the fifteenth century, the scarcity of 
copies entirely ceases, and the most famous masters of the Italian press 
were busy in printing the dangerous Decamerone. 

" Boccaccio has been imitated by the autliors of all modern Europa 



Mil. blanchard's publications. ^ 

The French allow that their Moli5re copied from him the entire snhjeoti 
of two of liis pieces. Among the English, the principal copier Irom 
Boccaccio is our own Dryden." — Ibid. 

OYID'S AKT OF LOVE, in Three Books. The 
Hemedv of Love, the Art of Beauty, the Court of 
Love, the Historv of Love and Amours. With 
Notes, Life of Ovid, and four elegant steel engrav- 
ings. 32mo. 312 pages. Price 50 cents. 

BASLl : THE KISSES OF JOANNES SECUN- 
DUS AND JEAN BONNEFONS ; with a Selec- 
tion from the best Ancient and Modern Autliors. 
With Notes and Memoirs, and two elegant Steel 
En^ravinsrs. Also matches Ovid. Price 50 cents. 



ITEW RESEARCHES USI ANCIEWI HISTORY: Embracing an hx 
arainyition of the History of the Jews until the Captivity of Babylon ; and 
showing tlie origin of the Mosaic LegemLs concerning tlie Creation, Fall of Man, 
Flood, anil Confusion of Languages. I^ C. F. VOLNKi', Count and Peer of 
France ; author of "The Ruins, or Meditations on the Revolutions of Empires" 
&o. A:c.,' Handsome 12mo. , Muslin $1 25. 

THE NE"W CRISIS : or, Our Deliverance from Priestly Fraud, Political Charla- 
tanry and Popular Despotism. Price 12>^ cents. 

A BOOK FOR THE TODES. SOQAL PHYSICS: An Extract from th« 
Positive Philosophy of AUiiUssTE COMTE. 8vo., paper cover. Price 25 cents. 
C^jmto '-fully sees the cause of our intellectual anarchy, and also sees tL« 
cure." Leuxs's Bioij. Hist, of ridlosophy. ^ 

LECTURES ON FREE MASONRY By the Rev. ROBERT TAYLOR, Authoi 
of "the Devil's Pulpit," "Diegesis," &c., l'2mo. paper cover, Price 25 cent* 

THE OBIjIGATION OF THE SABBATH; A discussion between R«t 
). N'. PJIOWX, D. D. and Wm. B. TAYLOR. 12mo. 75 cents. Do Pap« 
C«ver '•!>' ^2 cents. 

VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION : or, Tlie Aetiology of History, Religious, Aei 
Ihclical, I'oliticdl, ami Philosophical. 12nio. $1 25. 

WHO WAS JESTJS CHRIST 1 I^ing a short Inquiry inte the Origin of tii« 
(Ju.>p.-l.-loi y. i'aiui,hlct. 10 cents 

MODEBN TIMES THE labor QUI>; no V, ANPTHE FAMILY. A brief slate- 
iM-i.t (.1 1 ...:K :ii.,l Principles. By HENRY EDlJAR. Pamphlet. 5 cenU. 

MARY WOLLSTONECRAFTS vivniCATiON of the right.-^ of woman, 

vVilll >1I'.I< 11 111-,- (»N IMH.lTiCAL AND MORAL SUBJECTS. With a Biogr* 
t.liic;il .-^k.tch of the Aulliur Oue beautiful volume. l2mo. Price 75 cent^ 

BELIEF NOT THE SAFE SIDE. By Rev. ROBERT TAYLOR, B. A., Author 

r.! the " lievil X p. Ipi!" •• J ittji' i-, " &c. This, con«iderin|{ its .-i'r. 'an't 
».i- .•..u.-ilh-). I iici I' •xu\i. 



ROUSSEAU'S CONFESSIONS COMPLETE. 



THE CONFESSIONS OF JEAN JACQUES EOUS- 
SEAU. Newly Translated, without Omissions or 
Expurgations. 
Period First relates to E-ousseau's youthful adventures 
, to the thirtieth year of his age. 

Period Second embraces his literary and public career. 

Both Periods make two large, elegant 12mo Volumes, 

sold separately, at $1 25 each, or $2 50 the set. Mailed free. 

" There hardly exists such another example of the miracles which com- 
position can perform." — Lord Brougham. 

" There have been what purported to be translations of the world 
famous Confessions of Rousseau before ; but Mr. Calvin Blanchard's, just 
issued, is the first that we know of which is unrautilated and accurate." — 
Putnam's Monthly. 

" It has been translated into every language of Europe ; the librarian 
of Napoleon devoted a large volume to the classification of the different 
editions of it.- Evening Post. 

" Blessed be the early days when I sat at the feet of Rousseau, prophet 
sad and stately as any of Jewry. Every onward movement of the age, 
every downward step into the dephts of my own soul, recalls thy oracles. 
Jean Jacques !" — Margaret Fuller. 

The Confessions incidentally portray the remarkable 
times immediately preceding the French Revolution. The 
squalid wretchedness of the peasantry ; the gross licen- 
tiousness of the clergy ; the gallantries of the nobility. 
It introduces us to those famous philosophers, Yoltaire, 
d'Holbach, Diderot, d'Alembert, Hume; to ]\Iesdames de 
Warens, d'Epinay, and the enchanting d'Houdetot. But 
the heart revealings of Jean Jacques are its crowning glory. 

Just published by 

CALVIN BLANCHARD. 

16 Nassau Street, N. Y. 



MOmENTOUS WORK. 



THE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION, BEING 
AN INQUIRY CONCERNING THE IN- 
FALLIBILITY, INSPIRATION AND AU- 
THORITY OF HOLY WRIT. By the Kev. 
John ^Iacnaugiit, M. A. Oxon, Incumbent of St. 
Chrysostoms Church, Everton, Liverpool. 12mo. 
$1.37. Mailed free. 

This work is more significant than any which has 
appeared since the advent of Strauss's Life of Jesus. 
The vulgar idea of the supernatural inspiration of the 
Bible is here abandoned ; and what is more, it is shown 
that many of the chief dignitaries, including four 
Bishops of the Church of England, have held, on the 
dy^ similar opinions. The citadel of bigotry, super- 
stition and intolerance, may now be considered as 
authoritatively surrendered. 

"It is the first book written by an Orthodox cler- 
gyman which decidedly denies the doctrine of Scriptu- 
ral Infallibility. It is well written and manly." 
Christian Inquirer, [ Unitarian']. 

From the Westminster Review. 
" Distinguished by a fearless investigation of truth, 
an uncompromising hostiHty to deception and make- 
believe. Distinguished likewise by clearness of con- 
ception, closeness of argument, purity of expression, 
and completeness of arrangement. And unless intol- 
erance and superstition shall succeed in smothering 
the work, it is one which will exercise a wide influence 
— one which will give form and substance to thoughts 
which have been floating vaguely in many mens muids 
-—one which will supply a rallying point, and become 
in lieu of a creed to tlio.se who arc dissatiyiicd with tra- 
ditional and untenable theories ros{)Cclin"- inspiration.** 

Published by CALVIN BLANCHARD, 

76 Nassau St. New York. 



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